Peras had indeed returned to the cave. He stood in front of the entrance, a few of the raft men by his side. But he didn’t seem to be organizing the wounded or preparing the people to begin burying the dead or working on the rafts. He was standing in front of Louisa, his long arms on his hips, and his face empty of that jocular smile that had always been so comforting. And Louisa was facing him as if ready for an attack.
Peter felt the tension in the cavern and almost couldn’t force himself to break into it. “What’s going on?”
Louisa’s head whipped toward him. “You’re back. Good.”
Peras turned and, seeing Peter standing there, offered a hand to help him over the last of the rubble.
“Where were you?” Peter asked. “I couldn’t find you at the beach.”
“We must have missed each other in the woods,” Peras said.
Peter nodded. Just as he’d suspected then. Nothing to worry about, and Louisa’s mad ravings could be put to rest.
“I wish you’d been here, though,” Peter said. “If you’d been here, you could have prevented the whole thing. I would’ve liked to see that.”
Peras raised an eyebrow. “Would I have prevented it? Your ‘healer’ here seems to think I organized the attack.”
Louisa said not a word. Her hands remained planted firmly on her hips.
Peter thought he hadn’t seen her looking so determined since the day she’d cut all the ribbons off Julia’s birthday dress. But this was a new Louisa. He forced out a laugh, which sounded harsher than he had intended. “You know girls and their foolish ideas.”
Louisa looked shocked, but Peras seemed pleased. “Exactly. Well said, Peter. Now come,” he said, putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder, “I must have a word with you.”
Peter resisted gently. “Sure, but first … where’s Julia?”
“I’m here.” Julia’s voice came from behind his stepsister.
Peter stepped around both Louisa and Peras to where his sister was lying on the ground, her threadbare blanket evidently having been lost in the attack. There was more color in her face now, a new brightness in her eyes, and Peter grinned at the sight of her.
“Louisa won’t let me stand up yet,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” Peter said. “You’ll be ready before the rafts are. And then you can rest all the way to Aedyn. By the time we get there, you’ll—”
He was interrupted by a cough that came from behind him. Peter turned to face Peras.
The golden-haired savior pulled him aside. “We can’t risk it, Peter. We can’t take them all.”
“What?”
“It’s too dangerous. Getting them all through the woods — remember that cliff, now — and then a week’s voyage over a sea that will be rough this time of year, on rafts that will be just barely seaworthy, made from scraps of wood and vine … It’s too much, Peter. Most of them would never make it.”
“But there’s barely thirty of us now. And ten of us will be captains. Surely we can get twenty more aboard.” Peter looked around at the ragtag collection of people in the cave. Most had bandages wrapped around a limb. Some were coughing, others moaning. All were desperately hungry. He locked eyes with Gregory, whose face wore a steely expression, his arm hung limply at his side, the sling gone. Peter remembered his willingness to abandon Gregory in the woods. “We can’t leave anyone, Peras.”
“We’ll return for them later, Peter,” Peras said, placing a reassuring arm around Peter’s shoulder and turning him away. “We’ll sail to Aedyn, find weapons, build a great warship, and come back in victory to take them home with us then.”
“Well …,” Peter said. Something felt strange about this conversation, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “I suppose it would help if they didn’t have to be moved just yet. They could use the time to heal.”
“Quite right,” Peras said. “Very sensible of you. We have to wait until they’re stronger.”
Peter felt a dull ache in his head. “But we can’t leave them here in the rubble. The Gul’nog will return. We should move them first.”
“There’s no time, Peter! We must work nonstop to build the rafts and set sail before the Gul’nog return.”
“But—”
Peras muscled Peter farther away from the group. “Look at them, Peter. They’re weak. Invalids. Next to worthless.” He spoke low into Peter’s ear. “They’re not going to get stronger. Look around you. They’ve no food, no medicine, no bandages — no hope at all. It’s time to save ourselves, Peter. You and me and a few of the others. We can still make it to Aedyn.”
Peter felt himself nodding. “Yes, build the rafts. Quickly. Must get away. It’s all for the best. Very sensible.” He pasted a smile on his face and avoided looking at anyone, avoided Gregory. “Very sensible indeed.”
CHAPTER
6
“Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you hear what he said?” Julia pounded her feet against the rocky floor of the cave as she paced back and forth in front of the entrance. “‘The sensible thing,’ he said. Sensible to leave us all here to die!”
Louisa didn’t lift her head from her work. She was systematically tearing strips of cloth off a moth-eaten blanket and wrapping them tightly around Alyce’s swollen ankle. “Peter’s just forgotten,” she said, her teeth clenched as she tore a new strip.
“Forgotten what?”
“That love is stronger than reason.” The strip complete, Louisa worked it underneath Alyce’s foot and drew the two ends together. She looked up at Julia and her gaze softened. “Don’t worry,” she said. “He’ll remember.”
Julia muttered something about the absolute uselessness of brothers.
Louisa finished her work on Alyce’s ankle. “There,” she said, tying the final knot with a dramatic flourish. “Good as new. Well …,” she laughed, as Alyce unsuccessfully tried to flex her foot, “it will be good as new. Just give it time.”
“Time,” Julia said with a grumble. “The one thing we have plenty of. Time to sit and wait to die.”
“Nonsense,” Louisa said. “Honestly, if you’re going to take that sort of attitude, you’d best go hunt for mushrooms or find something else useful to do. We have work to do here.”
“What sort of work?”
“You mean besides laying our dead to rest? Why, get that talisman back and defeat the Shadow, silly.” Louisa raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. “Mother may have been right. You are a little dense sometimes.”
Julia scowled, but Louisa just gave a laugh that was full of mirth, not cruelty. When she next spoke, her voice was raised, and she addressed the small crowd of people in the cavern.
“Did you hear that? We have work to do!” Thirty pairs of eyes — all that were left of the people of Aedyn — lifted to her beaming face. “During the attack, the Gul’nog took the talisman of the Lord of Hosts. We’ve got to get it back.”
Julia, who was really trying very hard not to say something nasty and Peter-ish, had to at least question Louisa’s plan. “It didn’t save us the first time,” she said. “What possible use can it be now?”
“It will light our way.” Louisa spoke with such certainty that Julia fell silent, resolving to save her protests for later. “We will certainly need it,” Louisa said, “in the volcano.”
Julia gasped. The faces of the people around her had drained of color, and a storm of objection rose around her.
Louisa held up a hand, and after a moment the murmurs fell silent. “We must go into the volcano,” she said, “for it is there that the Shadow lives, and it is there that the Lord of Hosts will assist us in its defeat. There, at its source.” She looked around, perhaps expecting cheers, but received only crestfallen stares. “Or,” she continued slowly, “we can run. We can turn from the Shadow and try to flee before it. We can look for a place where it won’t find us and hope it goes away on its own. That is the choice we make today. Do we run, or do we stand?”
There were cheers this time,
though perhaps not as enthusiastic as Louisa might have wished. Still, Louisa smiled like they’d just elected her to Parliament. Her grin was contagious, and Julia broke into a smile herself.
Louisa held up a hand for silence once more. “To business,” she said. “In order to get that talisman back, we’ll need to learn everything we can about the Gul’nog. Their habits, their movements, their weapons, where they make camp. Everything.” She nodded toward Gregory. “You can help us there. We’ll need a scout, and you already have experience with the creatures.”
“Not experience I’d care to repeat,” he said, with a nervous laugh. “But I accept.”
“You’ll be safe,” Louisa said. “We’ll all be safe. Never forget: we are under the protection of the Lord of Hosts. He’ll keep watch over us even under the Shadow.”
Julia wanted to join Louisa in her optimism but couldn’t do it. Judging from some of the faces around her, she was not alone in this.
“Safe?” Imogene asked, disbelief in her voice. “Not one hour ago those monsters came and tore through the solid rock wall of our cave. They killed my Simeon and my Elmira. Why didn’t the Lord of Hosts keep us safe then?”
Others in the crowd nodded, though no one else spoke up. Julia found herself agreeing with Imogene — and at the same time ashamed that she could so quickly lose faith in the Lord of Hosts.
“And if we weren’t safe here when we were hiding and minding our own business,” Imogene said, her voice getting stronger, “what makes you think we’ll be ‘safe’ if we march into their camp or into that volcano?”
Now some in the crowd did voice their agreement. Julia wondered if Louisa might have a rebellion on her hands.
But Louisa didn’t look worried. If anything, she seemed even calmer than before. “I do not know if all of us will survive. I do not know if any of us will survive.”
This got a round of grumbles from the group.
“But the Lord of Hosts has promised me that He will make sure the Shadow is defeated — if we obey His call. We were attacked because we were heeding the voice of a servant of the Shadow. Now we will move forward to do as the Lord of Hosts commands. And doing His will may not always be safe, but it is the only way the battle can be won.”
CHAPTER
7
Peter and the others followed Peras to the beach. It was still night, but the moonlight shining off the whitecaps gave enough light for them to see their work.
“And now,” Peras said, “we build our rafts. With only the eleven of us, we will need to build only three. Peter, direct the men to bring out ten of the largest logs from our stash. Carry them to the beach here and lay them out parallel to one another. Orrin, you and one other bring out all the vines and lay them here at my feet.”
And so they commenced building their fleet. Peter still felt strange about the plan to leave everyone behind, but Peras’s logic seemed sound. And Peter was the last person to doubt good logic.
It didn’t take Julia and Gregory long to get organized. They were to head out as scouts for the first trip. Their mission was simply to find the Gul’nog base. Their task was nothing more ambitious than that. Others would research their movements and vulnerabilities after the base was found. It could take them all night to find the creatures, and no one wanted to risk being caught out in daylight.
“We’ll head northeast first.” With his good arm, Gregory had taken a hunk of coal from the fire and scratched out a rough map of the island on one of the walls. He’d labeled the cave, the volcano, the cliff, and a dozen other points in between. Now he scratched a thick, dark line from the cave to the volcano. “This is the way they went after the attack. We’ll follow their path as long as we can.”
“You won’t be able to find tracks in this light,” Louisa said.
“Don’t worry,” Gregory said. “The Gul’nog aren’t the only ones who can hunt.”
Julia grinned and swung an extra blanket around her shoulders. It was practically worn through, but it would offer some protection from the chilly night air. “We’ll be on the lookout for more mushrooms.”
“Bring home a bushel,” Louisa said.
With that, they were off.
The people had managed to clear most of the rubble from outside the cave’s entrance, and the bodies had been moved to a nearby spot in the forest, so Julia and Gregory were able to go forward without scrambling over sharp stones or the remains of their friends. Once outside, they headed in the direction they’d watched the Gul’nog go.
It was too dark to see tracks, as Louisa had predicted, but the most casual of observers could not have missed the fact that something big had moved through here — something enormous. The ground had been absolutely pummeled. Saplings had been torn from their roots. The Gul’nog had cut a swath through the forest as they’d left the scene of the attack.
Julia choked down a gasp as she saw what they’d done. Gregory looked over with a smile. He was trying to encourage her, she knew, but she couldn’t stop the feeling of sinking dread that had settled in the pit of her stomach. How could they possibly fight against these monsters and hope to win?
She took a deep breath and thought of the dark lords of Aedyn: the Jackal, the Leopard, and the Wolf. They, too, had seemed invincible. But they had proved no match for the power of the Lord of Hosts.
Would the Lord of Hosts protect them this time, though? That was the key question. As Julia walked silently beside Gregory, she thought back over her adventures in Aedyn. When she’d come here the first time, she’d found herself speaking with a voice she didn’t recognize. Words she hadn’t thought to say came out of her mouth. She’d screamed, and three horsemen had been knocked to the ground. Later, she and Peter had screamed, and the walls of the stockade holding the children of Aedyn captive had come crashing down.
She knew one thing for certain: if she got in trouble again, she was going to scream.
The thought made her steps feel lighter. Why hadn’t she thought of this “scream of power” before now? Maybe that was what the Lord of Hosts was waiting on — someone to scream in faith that He would act. Hopefully, she wouldn’t find herself in any situation that might make her feel the need to scream, but if she did, she was going to let one loose.
She and Gregory had one advantage, at least: the Gul’nog were certainly easy to follow. The going was easy too — there were no trees to duck around, no branches left to swing into their faces. And there was no possibility of getting lost, not as long as they kept to the path.
Oh, the path! Maybe, if they were trying to keep out of sight, the path was not the best place to be walking. She put a hand out to Gregory’s arm — his wounded arm, she realized as she saw him flinch. She mouthed an apology and nodded toward the side of the path. He seemed to understand, and still without speaking, they moved off the path and into the trees.
Julia could tell they were near the volcano. The ground seemed softer under her feet and the air grew ever more sulfurous. The dark cloud stretched overhead like an ocean wave about to crash down and drown them.
It was a good thing they’d gotten into the forest when they did, for it wasn’t much longer before they reached the Gul’nog camp.
It would have been too dark to see at all, but the Gul’nog were crouched in groups around massive bonfires that lit up the whole space around them. They were at the very base of the volcano, its greedy throat open and still glowing just behind the monsters. The heat from the bonfires poured into the sky, and Julia could feel herself sweating beneath the extra blanket she wore. She looked up at Gregory and saw that tears had come into his eyes.
She knew why. It was hopeless. Simply and absolutely hopeless. Just one of these creatures would be enough to wipe out the small band of survivors they had left, and here were hundreds — hundreds — of these monsters. It could not be done, and it was absurd to think any differently. It bothered her to realize that Peter, who had seen the logic in fleeing, had been right all along.
Gregory seemed to b
e reaching the same conclusion, for he grabbed Julia’s hand and took a step back. He didn’t need to tell her to be quiet — not for all the world would she have uttered so much as a sound. They backed up slowly, inch by inch, step by careful step, keeping their eyes always on those great bonfires and the monsters who sat around them.
Then Julia stopped.
She squeezed Gregory’s hand and nodded toward the fires. He pulled at her arm, urging her to keep moving, but she held fast. With her other hand, she reached out and pointed. Gregory followed her gaze. Julia hoped he would see what she had seen — and would understand what it could mean for the people of Aedyn.
At the outer edge of one of the fires, not fifty yards from where they were hiding, one of the Gul’nog was standing up. Slung around one of its meaty shoulders was a cord, on the end of which dangled an ivory horn. The horn that had called the Gul’nog to retreat. If they could get that horn — if they could use it to draw the monsters away from the volcano — then they could search for the talisman without needing to worry about being discovered. If they drew the creatures far enough away, perhaps Julia and Gregory could bring Louisa and the others here, and they could get into the volcano and fight the Shadow — all without needing to do battle with its minions.
Julia’s mind sped, trying to work out how to get to that horn without being seen. Maybe the monster who carried it would take it off. If it would set it down for just a moment, maybe Julia could snatch it away. But as she stood watching, that seemed more and more unlikely. The horn seemed to be a symbol of power. No Gul’nog would ever willingly remove it.
Gregory jerked his chin back toward the way they had come, and they retreated just far enough that they could whisper without the risk of being overheard.
“We ought to head back,” he said in Julia’s ear. “We’ve found the camp. That’s all we were supposed to do. Now we regroup and make a plan. Orrin and Priscilla will go out next. They’ll track their movements and find a time for us to take the talisman.”
Darkness Shall Fall Page 4