<>
<
<>
Ker’s heart lifted. <
<
Though the griffin’s thoughts had no tone, exactly, Ker knew there was no point in questioning him. <
<
• • •
Four days later they followed Ganni along a narrow path at the edge of a small ravine. They’d left the foothills behind, using the smaller paths only the Feelers knew. This wasn’t the way Ker and Wynn had come when they’d left the entrance; if anything, it was even more bleak and deserted. It was nearly the end of Icemonth, and the ground at this elevation was hard with the cold.
“Shouldn’t there be more snow?” Jerek, looking around at the rocks and frozen vegetation, sounded disappointed.
“True, young lord. It’s late for snow in this part of the Teeth.” Ganni pointed to where tiny drifts had caught in the lee of nearby rocks. “See how little there’s been.”
“No snow in the mountains means maybe a drought next summer.” Everyone, even the two Feeler women, looked at Jerek in surprise. He was still frowning at the bare ground around them. “Winter rain and snow at elevation,” he added, as though speaking to himself, or reciting a lesson. “That’s what farmers need.”
Ker exchanged a glance with Ganni. It wasn’t how a soldier—or even a Talent—would think. But maybe it was the way a Luqs should.
The old Feeler nodded. “Not a thing we know so very much about, farming,” he said. “Not so much as we’d like, in any case.” He passed Jerek the waterskin.
“I guess not.” Jerek took a sip and passed it along. “No farms underground.”
“We’ve got mushrooms.” It was the first time Anapola, the armed Feeler, had spoken. “And there’s the upper slope valleys—though that’s more animals . . .” Her voice died away and her face stiffened as she realized everyone was looking at her.
“I’ll be glad to get inside,” Ker said into the silence. “If only to get out of this wind.” She rubbed at her upper arms, looking up again into the cloudless sky.
“Can you hear him all the time?” Dersay’s voice had a tiny hint of jealousy in it.
“No,” Ker said. “I think it’s only when he wants me to, or when I’m particularly tired or—” She frowned, remembering Svann’s room. “Or in pain.”
“So all the time, in this last while,” Dersay said. “I can see how tired you are, just looking at you.”
Ker shrugged. Her feet felt like lead. It was such a relief to let Ganni, Dersay, and Anapola take charge. Jerek, his shoulders slumped, walked just in front of her, watching the ground at his feet, and Wynn hadn’t said a word since their last stop. Ganni was leading them through a narrow defile that Weimerk had reported as free of enemy soldiers. There must be hundreds of such paths through the mountains, she thought, though not all would lead to a mine entrance.
“Here now.” Ganni waved Ker forward. “This should be close enough, girl. The entrance is beyond those rocks on the right. What say you? Flash anything untoward?”
Ker rubbed her face with chilled hands. There was nothing here in this tiny ravine but ground made uneven with rock and hummocks of frozen vegetation, boulders and folds of rock angling up the steep mountainside above them.
This was no different from the many times she’d already Flashed the area around them, checking for the enemy. It was just that her brain felt full of sand. Paraste.
“There’s the two groups waiting in the southeast and eastern paths, just as Weimerk said. But I can’t Flash the ones he thinks are in the mines.”
“He thinks?”
<
Ker relayed the griffin’s thought. “I think he means the veining of the jewels.”
“That’s as may be, child, but we can’t wait on that certainty. What of the entrance itself?”
“There are three people standing near it,” Ker said. She took a deep breath. “One of them is Svann.”
“So we stick with the plan, then?”
Ker looked at the faces around her. “Do we know our places? Jerek, stay behind Wynn and Dersay, and head straight for the entrance, no matter what else happens. Anapola, you and I between them and Ganni—”
“And me in front. Yes, child, we know. Must I be careful not to hurt them?”
“Not at all,” she said, returning the old man’s grin. If Tel had been one of those waiting at the entrance she might have answered differently, but she hadn’t Flashed him there. “Watch your footing, people. We don’t need any twisted ankles.”
They moved out of cover quickly, following Ganni, bearing straight for the entrance. Even if the soldiers between them and their goal had been faster to react, Ker doubted it would have made any difference against the Feeler. Ganni gestured as he ran, and men were flung bodily away. Others scattered, and the way was open.
As they dashed forward, however, arrows grew from the ground at their feet and soldiers came trotting from between the stunted trees. They hadn’t been so close when she’d Flashed them; they must have been moving toward the entrance all along. More arrows flew from behind a tumbled outcrop of boulders, but these Ganni managed to flick away before any came close. Still, they had to move faster, or they could be overwhelmed. <
She was backing toward the entrance, sword up, with Anapola at her elbow just as iron fingers grabbed her from behind.
“Where is it? Give it to me.” Svann’s fingers dug into her arms as he shook her.
“My lord! My lord!” The fear in the voice penetrated even Svann’s desperation and, without relaxing his hold on her, he looked away, and then up. A moment later, a piercing shriek made everyone look up.
Dersay began to laugh. Anapola took advantage of the momentary distraction to slice at the soldier who’d been threatening her, knocking his sword aside and impaling him on her own.
A voice calling out in an unknown tongue told Ker one of the others was a Halian. The man lifted an oddly shaped bow, shorter than Ker had ever seen, and with too many curves. He shot, but the arrow swerved wide.
<>
<
The sunlight struck a rainbow of color from the griffin’s wings, and for a moment the beauty of it stopped Ker’s breath. Then the Halian soldier shot again, and now another archer joined him. For a moment the griffin hung in the air, then he folded his wings and plummeted directly at them, hind feet tucked under his belly, forepaws stretched out, claws extended.
The Halian and the second archer stood their ground, but the other men ran. Ker twisted out of Svann’s suddenly slack hands and ran to Jerek. Wynn was next to Anapola now, and Dersay had gone to Ganni.
The Halian, grim-faced, lower lip caught between his teeth, dropped his bow and drew out his short sword, standing with his knees slightly bent. He stepped forward, swinging his blade, but Weimerk batted the sword out of the man’s hand and snatched him up, wings beating, lifting him into the air. As his powerful forepaws held him, Weimerk closed his eagle’s beak on the man’s head, while the claws of his back feet tore open the man’s torso, spilling steaming entrails to the cold ground. Weimerk landed and screamed again, tail lashing, one enormous paw on the Halian officer’s body.
“Into the shaft now,” Ganni was yelling. “Quickly.”
“Weimerk!” Ker yelled.
“I. See. You.” A flas
h of color, a half curl of wing and Weimerk was lifted enough to allow him to swoop at the enemy, claws and beak ready to tear.
<
“Are we all here?” she said as she allowed Anapola to pull her further inside.
“Did I see Jak Gulder out there?” Wynn was bent over, trying to catch her breath.
Ker just shook her head, her own exhaustion suddenly robbing her of the strength to speak. They were inside. They were safe. She leaned against the cold stone wall of the tunnel. She grinned at Jerek and got a shaky smile back. Their plan had worked.
Ganni, his attention still focused outside, spoke over his shoulder. “Do you go on, you youngsters. Weimerk is still with us, and Anapola and I can hold this doorway until others can come. Dersay—”
“I can’t, Ganni, I can’t go with them. Please.”
“That’s fine, girl, you’ve done well. Can you find your own way in, Kerida?”
Her stomach heaved at the thought of more Flashing. “I think so, yes. Between us, Wynn and I can find the way.”
“Good, then. Here.” He slipped the wristlet off his left wrist and pushed it over her hand. “Do you go now.”
• • •
Just as Ker remembered, the tunnel led straight for more than a hundred paces before it began to veer.
“The first intersection should be coming up.” Wynn called from her position as rear guard. They were both doing their best to remember the route Ennick had brought them by, though in reverse. Ker wanted to put off as long as possible the effort that more Flashing would require.
“And here it is,” Ker said, as her fingers found an edge. Jerek was right behind her, still holding on to her belt. The wristlet gave her barely enough light not to bump into things, nothing like Tel’s glow stone.
“Really?” Wynn sounded hollow, but Ker knew that was an effect of the darkness, and the stone walls. “I remember it as farther away.”
“Easy to check.” Ker tried to sound confident, and not worn to the bone. “Here, Jerek, take my hand, I need a bit more slack. There should be three tunnels opening off to the left, and I may have to Flash all of them.”
“Where’s Ennick when we need him?” Ker could hear the smile in Wynn’s voice, though she knew the soldier had to be just as tired as she was herself.
“Just what I was thinking.” With Jerek’s hand firmly in her right, Ker shuffled forward. “Kneeling now.” She placed her left hand on the floor of the tunnel. Paraste.
Immediately, the darkness was filled with the bright and somehow soothing colors of Wynn’s and Jerek’s auras. Ker clenched her teeth and mentally pushed them to one side, focusing on the tunnel floor. “Not this one.” She heard Jerek give a kind of hiccupping sigh and squeezed his hand.
Inching around again to the left, Ker found and Flashed on the second tunnel. “Here we go. This is it.” While it didn’t have an aura like a person, Ker found she could Flash much more of the tunnel than she’d once been able to. She could feel it stretch out in front of them, every twist, every turn, almost every mark left by hammer or chisel—and something else. Someone else.
“What is it?” Wynn’s question startled her, and the girl’s aura swirled around Ker’s head.
“I think . . .” Ker refocused her attention. She was definitely Flashing people, someone familiar. Perhaps the Feelers were—Tel! Ker jerked to her feet and pushed the others back toward the first opening. Perhaps because she was inside, or perhaps because she wasn’t affected by the presence of the jewel’s ore, she was able to Flash more detail than the griffin could. “Down this way! Now!”
Flashing to see the way, Ker again took the lead, pulling Jerek behind her and trusting that Wynn was following. Their auras were spiky now, but Ker easily distinguished the shape of the tunnel. All too soon, however, the light of a glow stone came crowding up behind them.
The tunnel turned a little farther along, and if they could reach it before Tel and his men, and if they were careful not to go too far—Ker’s right foot came down on nothing at all. She twisted, pushing Jerek away from her, instinctively wrenching herself around. But momentum was against her, and she was already too far over to save herself. Frantic, she clutched at the edge as she slipped down, nails breaking as she pushed her fingers into a crack she felt barely in time.
There was just enough light to show her how close Jerek and Wynn had come to following her over.
“Jerek, back away!” The boy was trying for a grip on her wrist, but he wouldn’t be able to keep her from falling. She would only pull him down after her.
“Help! Help us!” Jerek’s voice cracked with horror.
Wynn, her hands on his shoulders, was pulling him back, even as he tried to lean farther forward, still reaching out. Ker scrabbled with her feet against the wall, trying to get some purchase. She had the one good grip with her right hand, but unless she found some other prop, she was going down.
“Jerek, hush, or they’ll find us.”
The light brightened, and Wynn and Jerek were thrust out of the way. A tall, familiar silhouette came between the edge and the light.
“Give me your hand.”
Ker knew the voice, and her heart lifted despite herself.
She licked her lips. “Tel,” she began, as he reached down for her wrist.
“Come.” Was she imagining it, or was there a quiver in his voice? “You don’t have to die. The Shekayrin will protect you.”
The Shekayrin. She should have known. “Yeah? And who’s protecting him?” Her throat closed, and the tears in her eyes weren’t all from the brightness of the glow stones. Part of her must have hoped that Tel was here for her. She was such a fool. A cramp shot through her arm, and she gritted her teeth against the pain. Tel was only here because Svann had sent him.
But that meant he was here only for her, and the jewel. Not Jerek or Wynn. Without her, the others might yet be safe. She could buy them time, until the Feelers found them. The tips of Tel’s long fingers brushed her wrist.
Ker gritted her teeth, and pushed free.
“How can the archers miss that thing? It’s as big as a house.” Jak Gulder barred Svann’s way with an arm across his chest. He had allowed Gulder to push him behind a narrow jutting of rock, but he had no intention of going any farther away.
“The archers are not missing,” he pointed out. Jak Gulder glanced at him with narrowed eyes. “Do you not see it? The missiles slow as they approach him, and fall away. There is something there, something in the quality of the air that surrounds him—almost like a heat haze.” That was the closest he could come to describing it. He tried to take a step closer, but Gulder held him back by the sleeve.
“It’s too dangerous, my lord. Let me call the men back. The girl’s gone inside, and Tel Cursar will get her. If the beast thinks we’ve gone, it will fly away.”
“It may not. It is a griffin.” But perhaps that meant nothing to this man. Likely, it meant nothing to any of these people. Svann clutched at the claw he carried in the breast of his tunic. For a moment, he thought he saw colors in the air around the sacred animal.
“That’s right, my lord.” An arrow shot from the mine entrance struck the rock near them and Svann allowed Gulder to pull him back into safety. “Let me call the men, my lord.”
“Fine, fine.” Svann ducked his head, trying to catch the griffin’s eye. Gulder whistled two piercing notes.
• • •
“The soldiers withdraw.” Anapola gestured with her chin, lowering her bow.
“Don’t stand down quite yet, my young one. Be so wary and so careful until the griffin tells us different.”
The younger woman nodded, wincing as Weimerk tossed a torn-off arm into the air. “I wish he wasn’t enjoying himself so much.”
Ganni patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t be so
sure that he is.” He looked into the dimness behind them. “Dersay—”
“I know, Ganni, I know. I’ve told them already to come for the Griffin Girl. Give me a minute. It would have been better if someone had been here waiting for us.”
Ganni grunted. Of course, that would have been better, but where were they going to get the people to guard every entrance? Even if they could find enough for that, there were too few Far-thinkers. They’d never needed to guard entrances before. The Serpents Teeth had been forbidden for so long, people no longer even thought about hunting or exploring in the range. That unspoken taboo, along with the “stay-away” feelings that strong Mind-healers like Hitterol could give a place had always been enough—
“Ganni!” Dersay grabbed his arm. “Griffin says his girl has fallen down the Octagon Shaft.”
Ganni’s heart grew cold. Anapola slapped him on the shoulder.
“Go! We’ll hold here.”
When Tel Cursar cried out, Jerek lunged forward, pushing against the circle of Wynn’s arms, just in time to see Ker’s face disappear into the darkness. Tel stuck out his arm like a railing, as if he thought Jerek and Wynn might go over as well. Jerek whirled to face him, fists raised in the way Nessa had shown him, and got in two solid blows on the kneeling man’s face before his hands were restrained from behind.
“You let her fall!”
“I didn’t—Jerek, listen. I didn’t let her fall; she wouldn’t give me her hand. I couldn’t save her.”
Jerek’s breath was ragged in his throat. For a moment he saw what he thought was real remorse in Tel’s face. The man wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I couldn’t save her.” Tel’s brows drew together. “I’ll have to answer to the Shekayrin for that.”
Jerek pulled forward again, but the hands on his shoulders held him fast, and eventually the rumbling in his ear stopped being noise and started being words.
“She did this for us, my Faro, don’t throw it away. Our friends will come for us. Hold your cards hidden, and we can still win. We’ll win for her.”
Jerek swallowed. Wynn was right. He was Jerek Brightwing now. Prince of Farama. Faro of Eagles. He had to get hold of himself. Ker would want him to.
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