Before he could find the answer, the ground shifted beneath his feet and Radok fell hard. He tried to lift his head, eyes still straining in the direction of that orange glow. He watched in horror as the passageway to the cavern grew longer and longer, until at last only darkness remained.
✽✽✽
He woke sometime later, warmth in his cheeks. When he opened his eyes, he saw he was lying beside the fire, the flames bright and hot against the empty darkness of the cavern. He was still bundled up in his heavy furs, almost too hot for comfort, and with a groan of effort he pushed himself to a sitting position and glanced around.
Nyana sat opposite, holding a cooking pot over the open flames, the smell of stew filling the cavern and making Radok's stomach grumble.
'How long was I out?' he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His back ached and he could feel crusted blood around his face. The bitter taste filled his mouth, the smell ripe in his nostrils.
'Two hours,' the girl replied. 'No more than that. It's still dark.'
Radok stared across the fire into the girl's empty eyes, watched them glowing like molten lava in the firelight. It still amazed him, the things she could do. She knew he was awake before he did. Even in the black void of her world, she knew when the sun rose and when it fell. She had the nose of a fox and the ears of a wolf. Sometimes it seemed the Seven had gifted her almost as much as they had cursed her. Radok shook his head. Such is the Will.
He glanced back along the passageway leading into the cavern, where he remembered falling. It was quite a distance. Ten yards at least. 'Did you drag me here?'
'I tried,' said Nyana, lower lip quivering, 'but you were too heavy. You dragged yourself in the end, moaning and muttering.'
Radok nodded. He'd seen such things himself in days gone by. A man, broken by exhaustion or crippled by wounds, dragging himself to safety through pain and delirium, against all the odds. 'The need for survival can be a powerful friend,' he told her. 'I'm sure you helped, though.'
The girl surged to her feet, leapt over the fire and threw herself into Radok's arms. 'I'm so sorry!'
Radok held her close, one arm holding him upright, the other wrapped around her. 'Oh, Little Sparrow. What do you have to be sorry for?'
'Sorry for being weak,' she said, her little body shaking with sobs. 'I didn't want to slow you down. I didn't want you to carry me all this way. I'm sorry!'
Radok pulled back from the girl, holding her at arm’s length. He gazed into her eyes, though he knew she couldn't gaze back into his. Those pale orbs were as blank as ever, but the soul was there, the heart and wonder you could find in any child's eyes.
'You're not weak, child. You've barely had eight summers in this world, yet here you are, side by side with the Wolfeater. You know how many folks would have chosen to walk the Whitelands with me? Folk with eyes, no less? None. Just you.'
And I never should have agreed. Should have left you back home… should leave you now, let the hunting party find you. They might even let you live…
But instead he went on. 'I've got forty years on you, Little Sparrow. I have a man's strength and the use of my eyes to help me along. And I've walked this path before. You're not too heavy a burden I can't carry you awhile, when you need to rest your legs.'
'You promise? You promise you won't leave me behind?'
'The thought never crossed my mind,' Radok lied.
He looked around, found his travel bag beside the fire and delved inside. He produced a small knife from within, no more than a jagged piece of iron really, with a smooth bone handle well worn by years of use.
'Here,' he said, drawing the blade across his palm, cutting just deep enough to draw blood. Then he took hold of Nyana's hand and pressed her fingers to the wound. 'You feel that?'
'You're cut,' she gasped, her fingers gently tracing the wound.
'Now you.' Radok grabbed her hand and flipped it over. He paused a moment, waiting for her face to rise expectantly. Then he sliced a small cut in the girl's palm. She winced at the pain, but she never pulled her hand away nor let out a sound. She took it like someone twice her age. She took it like the Crow she was.
Radok pressed her palm to his, closed his big meaty fingers around her delicate hand. 'Now we are bound by blood,' he told her. 'I am your father; you are my daughter. I'll not leave you behind. No father would.'
'Mine did.'
There was truth in that, but the greater truth lay in the quiver of her voice. Nyana had only ever known one father… and now she knew he felt the same.
'It takes more than planting the seed to raise the crop,' said Radok. 'And I'm not him. We'll reach the Blackstone together, you and I. Or we'll die in the effort. That's my promise to you, Little Sparrow. I vow it to the Seven and the Eighth.'
Nyana pulled her hand free of Radok's and threw her arms around his neck once more. They held each other for a long time, the silence of the rocks broken only by the popping fire.
Together or not at all. Radok shook his head at the idea of it. You stupid old fool!
✽✽✽
'Radok!'
The cry echoed off the stone walls, dragging him back from a deep sleep. He sat up groggily, arms and legs still aching from the previous day's work. The fire was burning low, most of the fuel gone up in smoke.
'Radok!' His name hissed this time, urging him outside.
Radok pushed himself to his feet with a groan of effort and made his way to the cavern entrance. Nyana was standing there, silhouetted against the soft grey sky of predawn, heavy furs rippling in the breeze. Beyond her, the snow continued to fall and a thick, white blanket now shrouded the landscape.
Radok cursed softly, angry that he'd let the girl wake before him. She was the one who needed to rest. She was already slowing him down and the journey to the Blackstone was only going to get harder.
'How long have you been awake?' he asked.
She ignored the question, instead pointing south, back the way they came. 'They're coming.'
Radok shielded his eyes and gazed off in the direction indicated, barely able to see anything through the swirling snow. He knew better than to doubt the girl though, who had a talent for knowing such things. Another of her gifts…
He laid a hand on Nyana's shoulder. 'You sure?'
'You'll see,' she said.
And he did. For a brief moment the wind shifted just long enough to glimpse beyond the snowfall, like peering through a tear in the veil. Radok saw a line of black dots slowly winding their way down the side of a vast hill on the distant horizon, like soldier ants marching down a mountain of sugar. Around ten he counted, before the wind shifted again and the tear closed.
'Half a day,' he muttered. 'Less, if they're eager.'
'Who would be eager to face the Wolfeater?'
Ah, the faith of the young! Radok smiled. 'They'll have been promised their weight in gold to catch us,' he said, 'let alone the glory they'll get for ending the Wolfeater. And all for killing a dying man and a blind girl.' Radok laughed bitterly. 'They'll be fighting each other to be the first to reach us.'
'Not all of them,' said Nyana, but Radok had already turned away.
'Get your things, Little Sparrow, we need to move. And remember our agreement. What I say, when I say. You'll be up on my shoulders and there'll be no complaints. Make your peace with it.'
Chapter Ten
Loyalties
They reached the stone outcrop as the sun reached its zenith. Not that you could see the sun, just a smudge of light burning through the veil of thick, grey cloud overhead. Jian watched the snow falling heavily around them, swirling about in a maelstrom of cold wind that came howling through the rocks from the north.
'They were here,' said Talgar, emerging from the cavern with a flaming torch in hand. 'The ashes are still warm.'
'Then we can catch them,' said Talak, a gleam of triumph in his eyes. 'Let's move!'
Jian ignored him. She grabbed the torch from Talgar's hand and ducked into the shel
ter of the leaning rocks. She ignored Tess too, who called after her like a concerned mother. Let them wait. Radok deserves a little more time.
She had taken only a few strides over the threshold of the shelter when the torchlight caught something on the ground, dark and glistening. As she knelt, Jian pulled a hand from one of her gloves and reached out. When she drew it back, her fingers were sticky with congealed blood. Her heart sank at the sight of it. Radok's blood, she had no doubt. It was true then. The Wolfeater was dying.
'I'm sorry, old man,' she muttered into the darkness. What a shitty waste.
'Did you find what you were looking for?'
Jian rose sharply, turning on her heels and bringing the torch to bear. Talak was standing behind her, his wild eyes bright in the torchlight. 'What are we doing here, Ashan Tay?' she asked him. 'What's the point of it all?'
Talak took a step closer, his top lip curling into a sneer as his eyes narrowed. 'What's the point? It's the Will, girl! The law of the Seven! No man can touch the Blackstone a second time. None save Ashan Tay. That has been the Will for as long as men could walk.'
'Things change,' said Jian. 'There was a time no one touched the Stone. A time before the Grey Crow, the Empty Faces, or the Broken; a time before any of the tribes were born. Someone must have been the first.'
Talak glowered at her. 'Aye. And he was Ashan Tay. He set the law because that was the Will, child. We question that, we question the Will. And if we question the Will… the Black Wind rises.'
Jian shook her head. It was hard to believe there could be so much fear in a man of Talak's faith. 'You fear the impossible,' she told him. 'You've gathered the finest hunters the Grey Crow can offer and set us the task of killing an old man already walking the road to death.' She thrust her fingers under Talak's nose so that he could see them in the torchlight. 'Look at his blood, Talak. Smell it! Radok is done. The blind girl he takes with him is done. We'll never see them again. So, what's the point?'
Talak stared at her for a moment before answering, perhaps letting his anger settle. 'What was it your friend, Ilgor, said? Ah yes! "This is the Wolfeater we speak of. For him, nothing is impossible." If it's true he's dying, then he has been touched by Chadra, and the Black Wind follows wherever he goes. If such a man touches the Blackstone, where the Will of the Seven is born into this world, who is to say what might happen? Perhaps that is all that's needed for the Black Wind to assert his power. And then what, girl? What if the Blackstone falls and the Eighth becomes the Will? When death reigns, do you have the power to stop it?'
Jian almost laughed at that, but she could see the fear in Talak's eyes. 'Everyone dies, Ashan Tay. The Black Wind stalks us all from the moment we're born, waiting for his time. That has never stopped the Grey Crow from touching the stone before.'
Talak raised an eyebrow, eyes glistening with the gleam of madness. 'You would lecture me on the workings of the Seven? You think you know more about the Eighth than Talak Thunderhead?'
I grow tired of this, thought Jian. It seemed she had spent her life arguing with fanatics. No more, she decided. Let the mad fool say what he must. The sooner he's done, the sooner we can leave this place.
'You speak it true,' Talak droned on. 'There can be no life without death. The Black Wind is always there, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the moment to strike. It is the flame of life that holds him back, the warmth and light keeping him at bay. Yet all it takes is for the flame to flicker, even for a moment, and the Black Wind will snuff it out.' Talak's eyes narrowed. 'And Radok's flame flickers, girl, you can be sure of that. He is nothing more than a candle in a storm.'
And some candles can burn the world before they're done, thought Jian, though she kept it to herself. She was done arguing. Meeting Talak's gaze, she felt the anger and contempt flowing through him. He was such a small man, bitter and twisted, like a weed growing in the shadow of a great oak. He lacked the passion and charisma of a man like Radok. Yet the Grey Crow had chosen to follow him, in turn abandoning the man who had fought and bled beside them, who had lifted the tribe to new heights. They had found Radok in the ruins of a shipwreck, and now it seemed they were all too happy to throw him back.
'I will kill Radok,' she said after a moment, 'if you tell me that is the Will. But it only weakens the tribe, Talak. It will cut the heart and spear the soul of the Grey Crow. The Wolfeater is the best of us. When he dies, a part of us all will die with him. Even you, Ashan Tay.'
Talak considered her words for a long moment, fixing her with his wild eyes. Then he smiled and shrugged. 'It is the Will. Radok must die.'
✽✽✽
The girl awoke with a start, just as Talak knew she would. Now that the Seven had settled their arguments, he could hear the voice of the Will as clear as if the gods were standing beside him, whispering in his ear. They had told him exactly where to be and when to be there. And they were right.
Her eyes searched the night desperately, seeking whatever horrors she had woken from, or at least trying to find something familiar to quell the fear. You'll find both right here, girl. The monster and the haven.
When she sighted him in the darkness, a crooked figure highlighted by the campfire, her eyes widened in surprise and fear. Talak held a finger to his lips. Silence! Then, turning the finger to her, he gestured for her to follow. Come!
She hesitated a moment, glancing down at Jian, who lay asleep beside her, their arms and legs a tangled mess. Then she began to work herself free, moving carefully so as not to disturb her lover.
Good, thought Talak. That's good.
He turned on his heels and walked away, leaving behind the three fires that made their camp in favour of the dark shadows of the surrounding trees. The other Grey Crow lay scattered about the fires sleeping, but Talak weaved a path through them with ease, guided by an unseen hand.
The pine wood where they had made their camp was almost silent, though the boughs of the trees creaked heavily under the weight of snow bearing down on them. Talak could hear the faint trickle of a stream in the distance.
He made his way towards the sound, stepping carefully over tree stumps and fallen branches. Every step felt instinctive, but Talak knew they were guided by the Will.
The narrow stream was only shallow, perhaps an offshoot of the Velga, trickling south. It was so cold the water was frozen in places, snow settling on the surface and chunks of ice drifting by. It smelled good. It bore the fresh, crisp scent of winter, carried all the way from the Whitelands, fresh enough to cut through the damp rot of the woods.
Talak stood at the riverbank and waited. Before long, he heard the girl moving up behind him and turned to face her. She was younger than he remembered, little more than a girl really. Big doe eyes looked out from the shadows of her hood, glinting in the moonlight. Her skin was almost as pale as the snow, though it was more likely from fear than from the cold. Talak appreciated that. It meant the girl had a healthy respect for the Seven and for those who served them.
He offered the girl a nod in greeting, a respectful gesture to help ease her in. 'Greetings, Tess.'
The girl offered a bow of the head back, though her eyes averted from Talak's gaze. 'What can I do for you, Ashan Tay?'
Talak took a moment before answering. 'Which of the Seven favours you, girl? Do you know?'
'Dacra,' she answered, no hesitation.
Talak nodded thoughtfully. He had known the answer before he asked the question, but there was no need for the girl to know that. It helped too that Dacra was the best answer she could have given, for any Ashan Tay worth his blood knew those driven by Dacra, the wind of love, were the easiest to bend to the Will.
'And Jian is the one you love?' he asked.
The girl shifted uneasily from one foot to another. 'She means a lot to me, yes.'
'Then it would concern you to know the elders question her loyalty to the tribe?'
At last the girl found the courage to meet Talak's gaze, her eyes flashing with anger. 'They're wrong. Jian wo
uld die for the Grey Crow.'
'She may indeed, if I cannot convince the elders she serves the Will. Tell me of her relationship with the Wolfeater.'
The girl looked confused. 'He saved her life… but that was a long time ago.'
'Ah, yes,' said Talak, remembering. 'She was the one who lost the child.'
'She didn't lose anything,' the girl said, her face flushing red. 'Her man, Grava, beat her near to death and the babe died as a result. She killed him in self-defence and ran for her life.'
Talak nodded understandingly, masking his own anger. 'And Radok killed the hunting party, men with families of their own, doing their duty for the tribe, seeking truth and justice.'
'The only justice they sought was Jian's head.'
Which would not have been enough, thought Talak, though he managed to hold his tongue. No point arguing the laws of the Seven with one of the Fallow. They seemed to think the loss of their wombs and the protective wing of the Far Eye set them apart, but the Seven would find them all eventually, as sure as if they were blades of grass in an open field. Even mountains crumble before the Will. It is only ever a matter of time.
'So, the Wolfeater saved her, and now she hunts him. You see my dilemma, girl? When the time comes, how can I be sure she will do what needs to be done?'
'She is Grey Crow,' the girl answered. 'She will do whatever the tribe needs.'
Talak was silent for a moment, the quiet disturbed only by the trickle of the stream and the rush of the wind as it cut through the trees around them. Talak stepped in closer to the girl, his voice low. 'And what will you do if she is not what you think she is?'
The girl gazed back evenly, her eyes fearful yet defiant. Almost too defiant, thought Talak, suppressing a smile. Like she knows which way Jian will go.
'Whatever the Will demands,' she said after a moment, her voice solemn. 'I will do whatever the Will demands.'
'Then let us hope Jian's faith holds as true as yours.' Talak nodded back the way they had come, towards camp. 'Go then. Tomorrow we will take the Wolfeater, dead or alive. Best you get some rest before then.'
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