Chapter 34 – Ingold
Stone fell in cascades, frozen in translucent sheets. It hung from on high in folded curtains, pearl white. Spires, taller than a man, reached from the floor of the cavern, mottled with unearthly blues and greens. No light had ever shone here. Ingold's flame broke a night of ten thousand years. Answering his will, the fire intensified about his torch. Shadows scurried for cover, hiding in the corners. A magnificent gallery sparkled before them.
A chasm divided the floor. At its narrowest point it spanned eight feet. The sound of rushing water rose from far below. Ingold leapt across without hesitation. The place enthralled him.
"Caverns measureless to man..." his rich tenor rolled out. The cave resonated with his voice. He sent the song rolling out before him as he walked, filling the tunnels with sound. A heavy crash from behind confirmed that Gartus made the jump.
"Quit strangling that cat, bard," Gartus growled.
Ingold's mood proved infectious though and, before the song finished, Gartus's deep baritone boomed out on the chorus. Only the discovery of human remains prevented an encore.
The bones lay piled on a broad ledge. Ingold came face to face with a broken skull as he hauled himself onto the platform - boosted by Gartus from below. He tossed a thighbone down for inspection.
"Teeth marks on it! Something big. Maybe a lion."
Gartus caught the bone and peered at the damaged section. He sniffed it.
"Troll," he said.
"Troll!" Ingold snorted. "You don't get trolls this far south."
"You don't get lions this far north," Gartus countered.
"How can you tell a troll did this?" Ingold asked.
Gartus discarded the bone and climbed up onto the ledge. The drop must have been an impressive waterfall when the river ran the course. He poked his blunt fingers among the other bones.
"I know troll-kill when I see it. I've fought trolls before. The armies of Sark use them as shock-troops."
"So you could handle a few?" Ingold sounded hopeful.
"Trolls make me look small. A troll's arm is like the trunk of a tree, stuffed with boulders for muscles," Gartus said.
Gartus hauled up his fleece and turned his back to Ingold.
"Take a look."
Under bumpy red skin, muscle writhed across corded muscle. Muscle formed the hump that distorted Gartus's back, great cabled ropes of it fed down into his shoulders. Ingold raised his eyebrows. Three ugly scars ran parallel to either side of the spine on the lower back.
"They never healed up entirely," Gartus said, "Pretty much reached the kidneys! It got me in a bear-hug. There's poison under troll talons, most wounds fester within a day. Practically any non-blood who survived with a scratch would lose the limb before the week was out."
"But you beat him, right?" Ingold said.
"Fortunately they burn," Gartus's voice was grim. "They're allergic to axes too."
Ingold led on. The old river course took them further and further beneath the Rock. His earlier good humour left him. It wasn't just the possibility of meeting a troll. Claustrophobia, absent in the wide spaces at the start, nibbled at his heels. Gartus seemed particularly subdued and answered only in grunts when Ingold tried to cheer him. Ingold grew more and more aware of the weight of the Rock above him. He felt trapped.
They found more bones further on. Ingold's light revealed them, partly bedded in the wall. It took a few moments for Ingold to realise what they were.
"It's so big!" Gartus said. "Look at the size of this tooth, it's as tall as me!"
Ingold just stared. Buried in the stone, no – not buried – but locked in the stone, were bones big enough to build palaces. They could see only a fraction of the skeleton but they saw enough to know that no such beast could ever walk the earth unnoticed.
"How did it get into the rock?" Gartus asked.
"Maybe it was the only way to kill them." Ingold ran a hand through his hair, "to cover them with molten rock..."
The bones held Ingold. He felt drawn to them. "If the first Blood Lords hadn't burned the histories we might know what these monsters were. There are hints in the oldest songs. If you look hard enough, and long enough, you can see clues. Before the Blood Lords the world was very different."
He traced a finger along the curve of a vast rib until the rock swallowed it.
"'The Old Ones, The Old Ones, never do they die.
Conault lies in shadow, when the Old Ones fly.'
"I'll take those nursery rhymes more seriously now. Maybe these are their bones?"
They pressed on. The passage of time and distance are hard to judge when the sun is hidden and your path is a tunnel writhing through the living rock. By Ingold's reckoning they had covered a mile and taken three hours to do it. The caves were still limestone, no sign of the granite of the Rock, their path still led through the ground on which the Rock sat. They stood once more in an echoingly wide cavern. Here the new river course split from the old. The new course plunged beneath the higher route that had brought them to the cave. The Crimbourn pooled from wall to wall. It spiralled away at the far end, drawn down in a whirlpool. The outer ripples of the gyre lapped against the muddy beach, wetting the toes of Ingold's boots. To continue, they would need to wade. The abandoned course was finished, the only option now was to follow the river, up the channel that fed the pool.
"Let's hope the river doesn't fill its course at this time of year," Ingold said.
He knelt and dipped a hand into the water. "Ouch! I've felt ice that was warmer than this!"
Ingold let his brand flare. Light danced over the walls in swirls, reflected from the water. Something beneath the surface caught his eye.
"Gods! Look there Gartus. The biggest redfish I've ever seen. Must be six foot long!"
Gartus didn't turn. His eyes remained locked on the opening they'd entered by. He sniffed the air. Hurriedly he untied the thongs binding his war-hammer to his side. Ingold stood quickly, sword whispering into his hand. He could see a flickering glow. Something had followed them.
The troll shouldered its way from the confines of the tunnel. It towered to at least ten feet in height. Ingold could not have reached across its chest with both arms spread. Its coal-black hide covered muscle heaped into great clots along the bone. The brutal head rose from powerful shoulders without the prelude of a neck. Scarlet eyes, lacking iris or pupil, seared across the men. A mane of fire spread in a crest across the troll's scalp and tumbled over its back, crackling fiercely.
"That," said Gartus, "is not a normal troll."
"It appears fish are not the only wildlife under the Rock that have been affected by the Blood." Ingold forced a light-hearted tone but for the first time in an age he felt personal fear. Many times he had been close to death. Sometimes, as in Thelim Keep, death seemed certain. He just hadn't cared. Now he did.
"Leave now," Gartus said.
The troll flexed its arms. Flames sprouted around its sooty fists. It gave off heat in waves. Already steam rose from the lake. Ingold could sense the power running through the creature.
"It doesn't look like it wants to leave," Ingold said.
"I meant you."
"I'll leave when it's dead," Ingold replied.
The troll roared and the air shook. Its mouth opened like the door of a furnace. Rivulets of liquid flame rolled over its chin. Already, dull red heat-spots glowed on its inky hide.
"I told Dain I'd guard him though all hell should rise against him. I failed once. Now I'm making my stand," Gartus said.
"And I'm standing with you."
"To do what? Confuse it with some bad jokes? I don't need you, little man, you'd get in the way."
The blood-troll advanced. Fire ran before it and spread in its wake. The inferno about its hands burned white hot now, and bright orange veins of heat branched across its bulk.
"Go!" Gartus shouted, "If we both die here who will watch the boy?"
Ingold wavered. "Dain is the only reason I would ever..."
"I know," Gartus cut across him. "Go!"
With an oath Ingold turned and ran into the lake. He waded toward the influx of the Crimbourne. A 'whumpff' sounded behind him. A blanket of flame reached out across the waters, and steam leapt. Ingold escaped the chamber through a hot fog, fighting the current. In the distance, above the crackle and roar of fire, he heard Gartus's battle-cry suddenly cut short.
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