Free The King in Reserve by Michael Pryor Page B

wove and curled, impossible to resist and yet hard to grasp. Adalon felt it brushing him with butterfly wings.
    They stumbled through the stone pipes, crashing against them and reeling on, desperate to be free of the power that was now roaring as if angered by their defiance. The wind was a gale in their face, threatening to fling them off their feet at any moment.
    Targesh lowered his head and forged on like a battering ram. Adalon guided them until, with great relief, he saw another arch ahead. With a final surge they burst out of the domain of the deadly pipes and staggered into a huge cave.
    Adalon let go of Gormond and the young king slumped down on the uneven rock. Adalon looked for Simangee. She stood at the arch, looking back at the A'ak wind pipes. She swayed a little, then her song changed. For an instant, the A'ak noise vanished. When it began again, it was different. Simangee's song ran underneath it, subtly picking up on its tones and grating notes and strengthening them. Adalon clapped his hands to his ears as the awful sound increased until he felt it in his bones.
    In the middle of this dreadful symphony, Simangee spread her arms wide. She lifted them slowly and brought them together over her head, claws touching lightly.
    The A'ak noise rose until it was a scream of hatred and anger. Then Simangee's hands curled into fists and the pipes shattered.
    Each of the hundreds of wind pipes burst into pieces, like an earthenware pot dropped on stone. Adalon kept his hands over his ears to protect them from the tortured sound as the wind pipes died. Simangee rocked slightly on her feet for a moment, then turned and made her way back to her friends.
    She looked at Adalon. 'The Way of the Crest says that harmony is important,' she said. 'The A'ak tried to pervert that, using music that was wrong in every way imaginable.' She almost sobbed. 'We must stop them from coming back, for the sake of all Krangor.'

Sixteen
    Adalon lifted his lantern high, but its light couldn't hope to illuminate the vastness that surrounded them. Shadows shifted and swirled on a forest of stalactites hanging from the distant ceiling. Gems and sparkling minerals glinted like stars.
    The cavern was an enormous arena – impossibly, dauntingly huge. Adalon's head whirled and he felt dizzy, so he tried to focus on details that were close and real. The floor, for instance, wasn't worked by tools. It was rippled, small waves frozen for all time.
    He turned to either side of the cavern entrance. The walls were colourful: bands of white, green and deep red rock, seamed dark and light. Marble?
    'Ah!' Gormond said. For once, words seemed to fail him. He stared, blinking.
    'The land has beauty beneath the surface, too,' Simangee said. Her voice was low, respectful.
    Adalon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Indeed, the cavern had a strange loveliness. 'It feels familiar,' he said, then he blinked. Their voices turned to whispery echoes that chased each other around sparkling rockfalls and pillars of stone streaked with silver and gold.
    'You feel it too?' Simangee said. 'This is a place of power. Just like the Foundation Room at the roots of the Lost Castle.' She frowned. 'It has been touched by the A'ak. This was not a happy place.'
    Adalon nodded and his gaze roamed over a formation of boulders in the distance to his right, each larger than a cottage. He felt the place had the same flavour as the chamber beneath his family home, the castle at High Battilon, the place where he had promised to stop Queen Tayesha's mad plans. It reminded him of his vow.
    'I feel it,' he agreed. 'But what does it mean?'
    'The A'ak were no fools,' Simangee said. 'They sought to dominate the land. They wanted to harness its power. To do so, they needed to come close to it.'
    Gormond was backing away. 'It's so big,' he whispered, and was brought up short when his back bumped into the rocky wall. He looked behind him. 'Well I never . . . What's this?'
    Adalon was relieved