I held out my hand palm down just above the surface of the pool and felt only a pleasant dampish heat. Even so it was with some trepidation that I dipped a finger into it. As Rheagor had said, the water was not boiling. I turned to look at him and only now noticed that he had wept a dark half-moon of tears into the fur beneath each slitted eye. The brightness hurt his eyes. That was why the other wolves were standing back from the water.
‘They do keep watch as well as shield their eyes,’ Rheagor sent. I frowned and strengthened my mind shield, not liking the way he had plucked my speculation from my mind.
‘Does the graag stay level in the ground?’ I asked, thinking of the horses. I knew well how deeply the Beforetimers had penetrated the earth in their passion for building and burrowing and there was no question that the pipe was a Beforetime construction, though I could not imagine what its purpose had been.
‘This one’s ancestor did tell that the graag did go shallow under the earth,’ Rheagor said.
‘How long is it?’ I asked, thinking I might as well take advantage of his sudden willingness to answer questions.
‘The journey do take two days and one night for stopping.’
‘We won’t need to stop for a whole night,’ I said, relieved that we were not to walk for a sevenday beneath the earth. I still had bad dreams sometimes about the endless dark tunnel I had walked along under the cloister in Saithwold. ‘We’re all weary but I would rather push on to the other end. A half hour of rest here and there will do us. I assume the graag ends beyond the glowing Blacklands?’
‘Where the graag do end it be possible to see the white plain that do be untainted,’ Rheagor said. ‘So did this one’s ancestor tell it.’
My heart leapt. This was far better than I had hoped. If Rheagor was correct, in three days, we could be on untainted ground! ‘Will we be able to see the city of the efari when we come out of the graag?’
‘It do stand on that plain but tha cannot see it from the graag. Tha must follow the path of the stone trees many days to come to it.’
‘Stone trees?’ I asked. For some reason I thought of the stone sword, perhaps because a stone tree was no less useless than a stone sword. Unless the wolf meant a path bounded by sculptures of trees. I shrugged. ‘I will tell my pack what you have said, and then we will go.’
‘Nah nah nah,’ Rheagor said, ‘Tha must not enter the graag until the sun do be rising. Make fire,’ he added, and then he withdrew from my mind and went back from the bright water to where his pack waited.
I quashed my frustration, telling myself that a few hours’ break before we started would not hurt. We were all weary after the long day and night, despite Gavyn being the only one who had run. Yet not even he looked as haggard as I felt. Obviously my body was still using up its energy to heal the effects of passing over tainted ground. It did not care that I needed my strength.
Returning to the others, I told them what the wolf had said.
‘What are stone trees?’ Swallow asked.
‘I do not know, but Rheagor suggested we light a fire, and given that the wind has dropped and the ground is clean about the pool, a meal might be in order.’ At least eating would give me some energy. None of us had eaten a bite the whole day.
But when the fire was made and Swallow began to cook a meal, Rheagor sprang from the darkness to snarl at the flames and ask if I was the fool or only some of my pack.
‘You said to light a fire!’ I protested.
‘This one did say nothing of food. Its scent be a call to the creatures that do come to this place at sunrise to drink, that they will come more swiftly,’ the wolf snarled.
‘You said nothing of beasts,’ I sent indignantly. ‘And why did you tell us to light a fire, then? It’s not as if we need it for warmth and we will have light enough in the pipe from the shining water.’
‘The dryka that do light the water do not dwell in the whole of the graag. But the dark be not the thing to fear. It has not wings or teeth to rend or drool that do burn the flesh.’
‘What are you saying?’ I demanded, my heart beginning to pound.
‘The same rhenlings that did attack the Brildane in the mountains do dwell in the dark places of the graag.’
My heart seemed to turn to ice in my chest. ‘There are rhenlings in the graag?’ I asked incredulously. ‘Where you would have me and my companions go?’
‘Where tha would go if tha would go further, Innle, hast tha the courage for it,’ Rheagor snapped.
I licked my lips, trying to think. ‘One of them killed two of your pack in the mountains when you were in the open where you could run or fight. How will we defend ourselves in there?’
‘Listen tha,’ Rheagor sent. ‘It did not be one rhenling but many that did attack the pack in the mountains, yet it did not be the full horde or we do all be dead. They did fly because the moon hid behind cloud. Rhenlings cannot bear the light of the sun and they do loathe the light of the moon and of flame. Their aversion do be so deep that they never fly save in those hours when the moon and sun do not ride in the sky. They hunt by scent and sound, not sight. No matter where they bide, their instincts do tell them when the sun and the moon do rise and they sink into a sleep so deep it do be kin to the longsleep.’
‘That is why you would not let us go into the graag until the sun is rising,’ I muttered aloud. ‘But if what you say is true, the rhenlings will return before sunrise. Any minute, in fact, and we will be sitting here in the open!’
‘The rhenlings will not return to the graag this way, for the dryka that do dwell in the pool do shine too bright,’ Rheagor assured me.
‘All right, so we are safe here for now, but you said it will take two days to get through the graag to the other end. What will happen to us in the hours when the sun and moon have set?’
‘There be a bright place within the graag where the dryka dwell. This one’s ancestor did tell of it. The rhenlings go not there. Tha must reach it before the rhenlings fly.’
I considered for a moment, and then I asked, ‘So there are no rhenlings between this end of the pipe and this bright place, otherwise they would be trapped between the two bright places and they couldn’t get out to hunt?’
‘Nah nah nah,’ Rheagor growled impatiently. ‘I did tell tha there do be rhenlings roosting in all of the dark places in the graag, but most sleep where smaller graag do join to this one. And those smaller graag do join others that go to distant places where they do fly out. So do the rhenlings that sleep in the first part of the graag use them when they do go to hunt.’
‘Then what you are saying is that we have to get to this bright place by dusk, stay there until moonrise, then when the rhenlings go back to sleep, we go the rest of the way to the end of the graag?’
‘Only when the sun do rise, should tha move. The rhenlings do loathe moonlight and the light of flame and dryka, but they can tolerate any lesser light than the sun, if they do be roused to swarm and feed.’
‘So they will never rise while the sun is shining but they might rise if they were disturbed when the moon is out?’
‘They will not wake while the sun shines unless tha touch one of them. Then will that rhenling wake and send out a call to rouse the rest to swarm. Then they will come after you and once the frenzy for blood is on them, they will endure brightwater or moonlight or firelight. Only if tha can reach sunlight will tha be saved.’
‘I could try to beastspeak them,’ I said.
‘Tha mind touch would rouse them as if tha had blundered into them, and they could then track tha even days later,’ he sent. ‘One of the she-wolves that did travel through the graag with this one’s ancestor did make that mistake. She tried to beastspeak one of the rhenlings. Its mind did cling to hers and the horde swarmed and did tear her to pieces.’
I stared at him, aghast. ‘I thought there was only one wolf that came through the graag,’ I finally managed to send.
‘Three she-wolves did go with the male that was this one’s ances
tor, and all four were cubs. Two of the females did die on the journey to the mountains, and the third soon after they arrived. Only the male survived.’
I sensed him readying himself to withdraw from my mind and asked hastily, ‘Why did you tell me to light the fire if not to cook? Is it to light the way once we get beyond the shining water?’
‘Tha flame do be to drive off those beasts that do come at dawn to drink, if they do follow tha into the graag. Only the largest and most savage will dare it and they will not come far, for all things do fear the rhenling horde. But they do fear the touch of fire, too.’
An hour later, as the first ray of the rising sun cut across like a knife through the gloom between the still dense cloud cover overhead and the black earth beneath it, the wolves entered the pipe. There was no difficulty in any of the beasts getting up into it as I had feared, nor was there any need for the rest of us to get wet to our necks because rock and earth had been ramped up under and around the pipe, just below the water level. The horses followed the wolves and then Darga, Rasial and Gavyn went in as Ahmedri lit and handed Analivia and me one of seven torches he had prepared. Then he and Swallow lifted Dragon onto their shoulders in a bier they had constructed from the travois, which had been partly dismantled and roped to Sendari’s back. We had talked of tying the bier to the horse’s back, but in the end it seemed safer to carry it, at least to begin with. I had wakened an irritable Maruman and lifted him onto my shoulders, wondering if his sleepiness was also the result of his body repairing the harm done by the tainted ground we had crossed.
The pipe was not made from metal as I had first thought, but from some sort of thick silvery plast, so the horses’ hoofs had not made the clattering racket I had expected. Nevertheless we made enough noise that I was glad sound would no more wake the rhenlings than firelight while they were in their profoundest sleep.
There was a surprisingly thick crust of taint-devouring creatures on the wall of the pipe just below water level, though not, thankfully, on the floor of it. I wondered how the tiny creatures had found their way into the pool of water. The fact that it was warm meant it was rising up from deep in the earth, but surely it could not have come from the same source as the springs in the distant mountains.
After I had told the others what Rheagor said of the rhenlings, we worried about the possibility of our blundering into them in the dark places in the tunnel. Ahmedri had volunteered to make double-ended brands from his supplies to serve as weapons if any beasts came into the tunnel after us; they would burn for a good long while, but I had pointed out that eventually they must fail.
Ahmedri countered by asking with some asperity what I proposed instead.
‘The beasts can lead us,’ Analivia said. ‘They see better than we do anyway.’
‘It is true, but even they cannot see in total darkness,’ I said. On the other hand, I had no better plan to offer. In the end I put the problem to Rheagor, who answered calmly that we would be able to smell the rhenlings long before we saw them, and that we were unlikely to be in danger of stumbling over any since they habitually slept clinging to the walls and roof of any roost they inhabited. Besides which, most would be sleeping in the smaller pipes. He suggested that we save our torches once we had got far enough into the graag not to have to worry about being followed by some other ravenous creature, and only light one when we were nearing the parts of the pipe where there were rhenlings.
I had passed this onto the others, and although they were not much more reassured than I at the thought of travelling blind even some of the time through a pipe full of sleeping monsters, we had agreed that we had no choice.
We had not seen a single beast as we waited around the fire for dawn, but we had heard a long gargling howl in the distance at one point. As we had entered the pipe, Swallow and Ahmedri carrying Dragon’s bier between them, we heard a deep thrumming growl that reminded Ahmedri of the call of a very large sandcat. This had put all of us on edge and we cast many glances behind us as we moved along the pipe.
After we had been wading through the water for a little, I noticed that Ahmedri now wore two identical short, curved swords that he must have carried concealed in his pack. I had shifted the knife the futuretellers had given me from its boot holster to my belt, but I could only pray the need to use it would not arise.
‘I don’t think anything is following us,’ Analivia said, her voice sounding loud in the enclosed space. She had been looking back constantly, lifting the torch she carried high so as to stop it blinding her, but now she shrank at the sound of her words fraying into sibilant whispers. ‘Maybe whatever growled back there was too small or frightened to come into the pipe,’ she went on in a whisper.
‘Maybe,’ I said.
‘Did the wolf say how long it would be before we would be safe from pursuit?’ Swallow asked softly.
‘When the water ends,’ I said.
‘Then I think we are almost safe,’ Analivia said, sounding anything but happy. ‘Look.’
Dameon and the horses and dogs had come to a halt ahead and they looked elongated and oddly shadowed in the pale golden light shining up around them. It was not until I was closer that I saw the pipe sloped up, creating a barrier to the bright water. Beyond the slope it ran straight for a short way, and then it sloped down again, but it went deeper down than before and was dry and dark.
‘Let’s go,’ I said in a resolute whisper.
I put out my torch but after a short muted debate we agreed to keep the one Analivia carried alight, at least until we became accustomed to the feel of the pipe and had a chance to see the rhenlings to get some idea of what we were dealing with.
We had been walking in silence for what seemed a very long time, eyes and ears and noses alert for any sign that we might be approaching the deadly rhenlings, when Analivia asked in a low voice, ‘How does the wolf know so much about what is inside this pipe if he and the others never came here?’
I found I was relieved to have a break in the stretched-out feeling of tension that had held us all in thrall since we had entered the pipe. I said softly, but in as calm a tone as I could, ‘He keeps talking about things recounted by his ancestor who came through the graag to the mountains. I suppose storytelling is the way the wolves remember things.’
‘Even as the tribes do,’ Ahmedri murmured. ‘To scribe of the past is to set it aside on dead parchment. To tell the past is to remember it and live it and to take part in the passing on of it and in the questioning of it.’
‘There is something ahead,’ Dameon murmured and we all stiffened and fell silent. The empath had been walking alongside me, his hand laid lightly on my shoulder. I listened and strained my eyes but I could neither smell nor see nor hear anything, nor could Darga or the horses, when I beastspoke them to ask. I was about to say as much when Analivia gave a soft cry.
‘Look!’ she whispered, pointing ahead at a circle of darkness in the side wall of the pipe just visible at the outer edge of the torchlight.
‘It is one of the smaller pipes that joins this one,’ I murmured. ‘Rheagor said they lead to other pipes and eventually outside. I suppose his ancestor could smell that.’ I wrinkled my nose as a thick fusty reek assailed it. ‘How he could smell anything over that foul stench is beyond me, though.’
‘It must be the rhenlings’ musk,’ Ahmedri said very softly, which caused a cold shudder to run down my spine.
I shifted Dameon’s hand gently to Analivia’s shoulder, took the lit torch from her and slipped past the two men and Dragon’s bier to look into the pipe, gesturing the others to stay back. The wolves had gone ahead out of sight but the horses were behind us, with Gavyn and Rasial, while Darga was alongside Analivia. As I approached the opening, my heart fluttered in my throat like a trapped bird. Now I could see that the smaller pipe that joined the one we were in had been wrenched sideways so that the seam had split open to reveal the hard, dark earth packed beyond it. I held the torch so that its light shone into the smaller pipe, and s
aw dark misshapen forms clinging to the walls and roof. They looked to be the size of large cats, with coarse, mottled fur, and their collective musk was so sharp that it made my eyes water.
I gestured for the others to pass, watching to see if the rhenlings stirred, but they might have been stones. When I caught up to the others who waited for me well past the smaller pipe opening, I suggested we tie Dragon’s bier lengthwise to Sendari, extinguish the torch and go on without the light, for it was now clear that we would be easily able to smell when we were coming close to any rhenlings, just as Rheagor had said. ‘Better to save the torches for when we need them.’
‘I can light it again very quickly,’ said Ahmedri after Dragon had been settled atop the big grey horse. I had gently lifted the sleeping Maruman from my shoulder to the bier, though I felt the same slight pang I always did, seeing those two I loved so deeply asleep.
‘Wait a moment,’ I said as Ahmedri took the light from Analivia and was about to extinguish it. I looked at Dameon, who felt my scrutiny and gave me a quizzical look. ‘Back there before any of us saw the join or smelled the rhenlings, you knew they were there. How?’
‘I could feel their ferocity,’ the empath said. ‘I think it would be a very bad thing to be nearby when these creatures wake, if they feel such rage in deepest sleep.’
‘That is what I guessed,’ I said triumphantly. I looked at the others. ‘Dameon will lead us. He is blind, so experienced at moving without being able to see. His hearing is very sharp and allows him a strong sense of what is about him and his empathy will warn him when we are coming close to the rhenlings, even before we can smell them. As soon as he senses rhenlings ahead, Ahmedri can re-light the torch.’
Dameon gave a dry laugh, and said with soft incredulity, ‘I will lead you.’
So as Ahmedri quenched the torch, we arranged ourselves in a line, hand to shoulder, and set off again, this time with Dameon in the lead and the horses behind us. Darga and Rasial were to flank Gavyn, who would not hold onto any of us, though so far he had shown no inclination to lag since we had entered the pipe.
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