The Lair of Bones Read Free Page B

Averan recognized it as Chesterton. Here the road forked. One highway headed almost due east toward the Courts of Tide. The other road went southwest toward Keep Haberd—and beyond that, to the Mouth of the World.
    Overhead, a fireball lanced through the sky, huge and red. Flames streaked from it with a sputtering sound. As it neared the Alcair Mountains, it suddenly exploded into two pieces. They struck the snow-covered mountains not thirty miles away. The ground trembled, and moments later came sounds like distant thunder, echoing over and over.
    â€œThe Earth is in pain,” the wizard Binnesman whispered.
    Averan heard a child squeal in delight. Up the road, beside one of the cottages, a woman squatted on her lawn. Three girls, none older than six, stood with her, looking up at the heavenly display in wonder.
    â€œPretty!” the youngest child said, as she traced the trail of the fireball with her finger.
    An older sister clapped in delight.
    â€œOh, that was the best one yet,” their mother said.
    Other than these four, the town slumbered. The cottages clustered in dark, tired mounds. The farmers within would not dare rise until the cows began bawling to be milked.
    Gaborn drove the buckboard through town. The mother and her daughters watched them pass.
    Now the earth shivered beneath them like an old arthritic dog. Binnesman had spoken truly. Averan recognized the earth's pain by more than just the earthquakes or the fall of stars. There were less definable signs that perhaps only one who loved the land could discern. She'd been able to feel it for days now as she walked, a wrongness in the soil, an ache among the hills.
    â€œYou know, Gaborn,” Binnesman said at last, “you say that you will lean upon my counsel. Therefore, let me say this: I think you take too much upon yourself. You plan to seek out the Lair of Bones, and hope there to kill the One True Master. But you have not been called to be the Earth's warrior, you are the Earth King, the Earth's protector. You also talk of war-ring with the reavers, killing… perhaps thousands. But more than just the fate of mankind hangs in the balance. There are owls in the trees, and mice in the fields, and fishes in the sea. Life, every kind of life, may fade with us. The Earth is in pain.”
    â€œI would rejoice if we could heal its pain,” Gaborn said, “but I don't know how.”
    â€œThe Earth has selected you well,” Binnesman said. “Perhaps we will find the way together.”
    The wagon raced over the road, and Averan lay back with a heavy heart, feigning sleep.
    And what of me? Averan wondered. As a skyrider, she'd often had to travel far from home, and she had found some special places that she loved. She recalled a clear pool high in the pines of the Alcair Mountains where she'd sometimes picnicked, and the white sand dunes forty miles east of Haberd where she had played, rolling down the hills. She'd perched with her graak on rugged mountain peaks that no man could ever climb, surveying vast fields and the forests that undulated away in a green haze. Yes, Averan loved the land, enough even to live every day in its service.
    That's what makes me an Earth Warden's apprentice, she realized.
    The wagon rolled through the night with Averan lost in thought. It wound up into the hills. All too soon it came to a halt just outside a vast cavern, where dozens of horses were tethered. A bonfire crackled within the cave, where scores of knights were engaged in rowdy song.
    â€œAveran, wake up,” Gaborn called softly. “We're at the Mouth of the World.”
    He reached into the back of the wagon and as Averan raised her head, he retrieved the sack that held his armor, along with his long-handled war hammer. Binuesman got up and hobbled stiffly toward the cave, using his staff as a crutch.
    â€œI had a dream last night,” Erin Connal whispered to Celinor as they stooped to drink at a stream in South