Warautumn by Tom Deitz Read Free Book Online

Gem-Hold-Winter’?”
    Avall took a deep breath, steeling himself for contention, should it appear. “If this is indeed the place in my visions, then we’re on an island in the middle of a lake with a file of cliffs encircling it.”
    “Let’s hope it’s an island with food,” Bingg muttered. “Lyk’s stash of delicacies won’t last long.”
    “Fish in the lake, at minimum,” Myx offered matter-of-factly. “Probably small game and birds here. But for anythingthat would really fill us or support us long-term, we’d need to reach the mainland.”
    “Which I assume we will,” Rann gave back, shifting his gaze to Riff, whose clan—Ioray—ruled shipcraft. “In the meantime, we need to look at this logically. Food, we have some of and can eventually get more. Shelter—we seem to have found that as well, though I’d hope for something cozier for cold weather. Ideally, something we can close off.”
    “For winter,” Myx echoed darkly.
    “Which leaves clothing,” Lykkon finished. “We basically have what we had on, which is fairly sturdy—all but Vall and Kylin, I mean. Fortunately, we’re all much of a size, except Bingg, and my clothes chest was one of the things that made the jump.”
    “Point me to it,” Avall sighed. “I’m tired of sitting around in just a cloak.”
    Ever dutiful, Bingg hopped to his feet and showed Avall a middle-sized oak chest that had fallen over but otherwise sustained no damage. A quick inspection produced three sets of indoor clothing, all in Argen maroon. Avall claimed the most worn set and started dressing. “It would be helpful,” he observed as he pulled on Lykkon’s third-best pair of house-hose, “if someone briefed me on what’s happened since I was captured. About the war, I mean.”
    “And if you briefed us on what happened while
you
were captured,” Rann countered. “Like what’s going on with Zeff and the master gem.”
    Avall shrugged. “I don’t know all of that. I was imprisoned every moment I was in the hold, and they plied me with imphor to get me to talk, but I’ve learned how to talk around the truth somewhat, and I listened carefully to how they phrased their questions. But to answer
your
question: One night Zeff came storming into my cell with the master gem, demanding to know how to work the regalia. I don’t remember the specifics of the confrontation, but he was as angry as I’ve ever seen him—and he’s not a man who angers easily. Basically, hebeat me and when he saw that he’d bloodied my face, forced the gem into the blood, so that we wound up … linking—I won’t say ‘bonding.’ Luckily for me, I was able to draw some force from the Overworld while we were joined and managed to use that to fling him away. He left, but beyond that, I don’t know anything until they came to my room, stripped me, and clamped me to that tabletop. That, and the fact that I was able to contact Kylin while he was harping—probably because the gem was so close—along with the fact that Kyl’s a very strong thinker. The rest you know.”
    Lykkon scowled. “So you think Zeff learned how to link the gem to the sword from you?”
    Avall shrugged in turn. “He might have, but I have no way to know what he found in my brain while we were … together. Though of course I’d have shown him
nothing
by choice.”
    “What about other gems?” Rann inquired. “Have they reached the mines yet?”
    Avall tugged on an overtunic and rejoined them. “If they have, I haven’t heard about it. But that doesn’t mean much; information is hard to come by in there. What I’ve told you really is all I know, honestly. Oh, I could add a few details, but I’d as soon save them for later, since something tells me we’re going to have plenty of time to talk. In any case, we’ve got more important things to discuss right now—like what’s been going on in the camp and elsewhere.”
    Rann and Lykkon exchanged troubled glances. “You don’t know about the