Free Fortress Draconis by Michael A. Stackpole Page A

who would have escaped the fire, survived and become Vionna, the pirate queen, with the Azure Spider as her consort.
    Now I have what we all wished for, but it doesn’t come free.The way Resolute watched him told Will that the
    Vorquelf expected him to try to run. Will put his chances at being able to escape the Vork as small, but part of him wanted to try anyway.
    Another part of him, a larger part, balked. There was something in the way Oracle had said they would do all they could to save him that told him how important he was to them.If I am not the one they want, I would be a link in the chain. Suddenly he found for himself the theme of the saga of Will the Nimble. His story would be one of exploits strung like pearls, and now he had a string. He would help restore Vorquellyn—wherever that was—and he knew he would do it because everyone else had failed for a very long time.
    He nodded and exhaled slowly. “What do we have to do?”
    Relief painted a smile on Oracle’s face. “Come over here and stand in this basin, Wilburforce.”
    Will complied as Resolute exited the chamber. The youth found an iron ring had been half-sunk into the center of a shallow depression in the rock, which was ten feet in diameter. Around the rim had been painted an uneven red line. He toed the rusty ring and found it both heavy and solidly affixed to the ground.
    An angry bleat and the clicking of goat’s-hooves on the stone brought him around. Resolute reentered the room and stepped aside as Crow led a goat at the end of a stout length of chain into the chamber. The two warriors exchanged silent glances, then Crow smiled.
    “I had no doubt Will would agree. I thought I would save time.” Crow led the goat over to the depression, then fastened its chain to the ring, leaving it six feet of play. The creature seemed docile enough, coming over to sniff at Will, then gently butting him.
    Oracle entered the depression and the goat came to her. She stroked its neck, then brushed a thumb over its forehead. The Vorquelf drew a slender poniard and slashed a little cut above and between the goat’s eyes. The creature bleated and jumped back to the length of its chain, with blood welling in the wound. Its hooves scrabbled against the smooth stone, but gained little purchase, and the goat went down.
    “Give me your left hand, your heart hand, Wilburforce.”
    He complied and felt the sting of the blade being dragged over his palm.
    Oracle pointed to the goat as it rose unsteadily to its feet. “We need to forge a link between you and it. Place your wound against its, let the blood comingle. Go, do it, there is little time to lose.”
    Will trailed his right hand over the chain and closed with the goat. By the time he got to it and laid his hand on its forehead, Crow and Oracle had cleared the depression. Oracle and Resolute, standing together at circle’s edge, held hands and Resolute’s tattoos began to glow with a vibrant purple hue. A quarter circle away, Crow had strung a small horse-bow made of a silver-blond wood, and had nocked an arrow with a wide razored broadhead that had been washed in silver.
    Will swallowed hard. “I’m ready.”
    Crow winked. “You’ll do fine.”
    Resolute’s argent eyes narrowed. “I think he will. I think we will succeed. The question is, how much will they make us pay for that success?”
    Then Oracle began to speak.
    The words trickled sibilant and lyrical from Oracle’s mouth. Some would ring high and clear, like the peal of a crystal bell, while others would rumble cart-heavy through a cobblestone street. Each word spilled into the air and seemed to hang there. Will thought he caught glimpses of them, illuminated in the glow of Resolute’s tattoos.
    As the sounds floated in the air, they linked themselves into chains. Echoes reinforced them and drew them in, further, surrounding Will and the goat. The youth kept his hand pressed against the creature’s forehead, ignoring the warm wetness that connected them. His hand tingled,