Jala watched him silently for a long moment and then reached a hand out slowly to take his. He raised an eyebrow at her in question but didn’t pull free. She squeezed the fingers lightly and summoned as much of a smile as she could. “I don’t doubt you in the least, Valor. I had the slightest hesitation from the way you acted after Kali’s, but that is gone now. I trust you with my life and…” She paused and looked around before giving a bitter chuckle. “And my soul, I suppose. I know I would be dead by now if not for you and I know you will do everything you can to bring Finn back.” Jala released his hand as she finished speaking and set the plate of uneaten food aside. “Can I trust the others as I trust you, Valor? You know them better than I do,” she asked softly.
“I don’t trust Jail. I’ve never been able to determine if his mind-work on me was entirely in my best interest or if he had another agenda. I was in line for redemption that would have been followed by promotions in the knighthood before he tampered with my will. I have forgiven him for it though. What I lost is questionable. What I gained was a priceless friendship,” Valor said quietly. “I don’t trust Wisp much either but that’s probably being racist. She is Fae and they are sneaky. I truly haven’t spent enough time around her to know if she is or not, though. I don’t trust Neph, but you can. He swore an oath to you and he would rather eat his own boots than break his word. Sovann, I do trust, perhaps even more than I trusted his brother. Sovann has a rare trait that very few in Sanctuary possess – integrity. He cut all ties in his homeland because he couldn’t abide by their behavior.”
“You answered exactly as War did. He told me to watch Jail and Wisp and form my own decisions,” Jala said as she began to gather the blankets and fold them for travel. “Val, can I ask one more question? You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.” She glanced over at him as she folded the blanket across her arm.
“Let me do that and you get dressed. And yes, you can ask another. Even if it’s something I don’t want to answer, at least it ends this damned silence we have been living in,” Valor replied as he took the blanket from her and began to gather the rest of their gear.
“If you are disgraced in Arovan, why did Lord Arovan give you a commission to lead a thousand of his knights?” Jala asked.
Valor snorted in what could have been amusement. “That was Elijah’s way of flexing his political muscle. He helps both of us that way while retaining the true power over his troops. By giving command to me, he ensures they will never be used against his land, not that Arovan knights would fight against their home. He also gives me a chance to redeem myself out of sight of those that would like me to fail in that. On the other hand, he helps you without openly helping you. A thousand trained knights is a handsome gift and will raise quite a few eyebrows. If a faction that opposes me asks, he will say he granted them to you. If a faction that doesn’t approve of you asks, he will say he granted them to me,” He explained with a faint smile.
“Clever,” Jala acknowledged with a nod. Her mind worked over the logic as she tugged on the chain mail over her leather tunic. “Does he give lessons in politics?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He does within Arovan. I learned from him,” Valor replied with a shrug.
“What was the position you were in line to receive, Val?” Jala asked, her curiosity pushing her to test his limits.
“I was being groomed to be Lord Commander of the Knights of the Phoenix. I would have been second in command within a year, and by now I would be the Lord Commander. It’s a bit of a tradition in my family. My Brother is the Lord Commander of the Knights of the Griffon, though he spends more time playing bodyguard to Micah than he does commanding his knights. There were certain difficulties, though, hence why I was in Sanctuary,” Valor answered with a hint of tension to his voice. “It’s not a good subject for now. Sometime I’ll explain it, but not now please.”
“As you like,” Jala agreed, watching him for a moment before returning to the buckles on her armor. With every question Valor answered, he created two more in her mind. They could wait though. She would have plenty of time to ask later.
Ink black darkness enveloped the ground before her. Jala inched forward, cautiously trying to ignore the loose gravel under her boots. She could see no sign of the path Valor assured her was there. Swallowing heavily she let out a long slow breath and turned back to look at Valor. He was leaning against the side of his horse watching her, though his face was too shadowed for her to read his expression. By his posture he seemed as calm and relaxed as he did in the gardens of Sanctuary.
“I don’t see a path at all,” she whispered, hoping her voice wasn’t quavering too much. The thought of dropping down over the ledge into complete darkness had her throat dry and her heart hammering.
“It’s about three feet down, you should be able to see it.” Valor replied as he pushed off the horse and moved to stand beside her. Gravel skittered under his plate mail boots sending small showers over the cliff edge. He glanced at Jala and then motioned over the side once more. “Right there, see.” He pointed below them and looked back at her.
Jala frowned at him and leaned forward once more. The same darkness greeted her. “All I see is darkness, Val. If there is a path there, I’m not seeing it.”
Valor seemed puzzled for a moment, then a look of utter disbelief crossed his face. “By the gods, Jala, you don’t have night vision do you?” he asked, his tone incredulous.
“What?” Jala asked, returning his look of confusion.
“You have been in here for weeks without being able to see at all?” Valor asked, still sounding bewildered. “I think I would have gone insane by now if I couldn’t see what was around us.”
“Wait.” Jala began. She glanced over the edge again then back to him. “You mean you can actually see through this? You have been able to see the entire bloody time?” she asked, her voice rising a bit louder than was safe.
Valor nodded and shook his head at her again. “That’s love. There is no doubt about it, Jala. Not only are you crossing hell for him, you are doing it blindly,” he said in amazement.
“I can see short distances, a few feet or so, and then it gets murky. If that path is really three feet below, I should see it, I think,” Jala replied, a bit defensive. She looked back up at him, her eyes narrowing a bit. “How far can you see?” she asked.
Valor shrugged and motioned a hand to the left of them. “There is a large rock formation over there that has been annoying me since we stopped. It’s a perfect place to hide for ambush so I’ve been keeping an eye on it. That’s about forty feet away, I’d say. A little beyond that it starts getting hazy, like heavy fog I suppose.”
Jala stared in the direction he indicated and nodded slowly. It was all one mass of shadows to her. She couldn’t even see the outline of a rock formation. “Well, I suppose it’s good that one of us has an idea of what’s around us. I’ll admit, I’m jealous, though. I’ve been skittish the entire way because of the blindness. Well partly because of the blindness. I suppose it’s fair to admit a lot of my nervousness stems from the fact that we are in the bloody Darklands. It makes me feel a bit better about myself to understand why you are so calm, though. I feel like less of a bloody coward.”
“Jala you are one of the last people in the world I would consider a coward. Most women I know are afraid to go into their backyard at night. Wisp was formerly the strongest woman I’d ever seen, but I don’t think anything would convince her to walk into hell, no matter what was to be gained,” Valor assured her.
“One might argue that’s insanity, not bravery,” Jala pointed out with a short sigh. Her eyes were roaming the shadowed cliff once again. If she could just get a glimpse of this path maybe her stomach would settle a bit. “Speaking of insanity, you really want to ride down this?” she asked, looking back up at him.
“It can be done. I promise you that. It really only comes down to one thing,” Valor said quietly and watched her.
Jala w
aited for him to continue, but realized after a few moments he wasn’t going to without her asking. “And that one thing is?”
“Do you really trust me?” Valor asked, one slender silver eyebrow arched in question. He held her gaze; his blue eyes searching her own for any sign of doubt.
“Does my trusting you really apply to my trusting your horse’s agility?” Jala countered, not flinching from the gaze.
“He is Arovanni, Jala. Part of my soul was used in his creation. I know what he can do. To trust me is to trust him,” Valor explained. Moving forward he took her by the arm gently and pulled her back toward the horse. “Here, place your hand over his nose gently. Just rest the palm there against the skin.”
Jala gave him a questioning glance, but allowed him to move her hand to the horse’s nose. Gently she pressed her palm against the flesh and marveled at the warmth beneath her hand. She had expected Valorous to be cold to the touch as his barding was. Instead he felt like a living creature, though she had never seen him eat, drink, or sleep. There was a faint stirring in her mind and she silenced her thoughts with a bit of wonder. She could feel emotions, though she knew they weren’t her own. It was almost like the bond with Finn had been, though not nearly as strong. She had felt the faint brush of the Arovanni’s mind in Goswin when Valor had handed her the reins, but it hadn’t been nearly this defined. She could sense confidence flowing through the link as well as loyalty and compassion. Fainter, there was a flicker that seemed almost too fragile to examine closely – trust. Slowly she pulled her hand back from the horse and let out a slow breath. “All right, Val, we ride,” she said faintly and wondered if he could even hear her words over the hammering of her heart. To her own ears it sounded like battle drums.
“Trust me.” Valor urged, though the words sounded more like a plea than a request.
“I do,” Jala assured him and moved to mount the horse. He can see in the dark and he wants Finn back as badly as I do, she reminded herself as he settled on the horse behind her. Certain horses are bred for certain things. The bigger they are, the less versatile they are. Blackjack might never carry a knight, but he will be able to get up paths that ol’ Buck wouldn’t consider. The memory of her father’s words came unbidden and she swallowed heavily. “Valor, this is a War Horse isn’t it? He is made for charging at enemies, right? Not playing mountain goat on a pitch black cliff.”
“He is Arovanni. Hold on to something – either me or the saddle. It will be a quick ride down. Lean when I lean and try not to scream,” Valor explained as his horse leaped forward with a speed that didn’t seem at all appropriate considering the situation.
Jala swallowed the squeal that almost broke from her lips and seized the front of the saddle in both hands. There was a moment of panic as the horse leaped, and then the only sound was her ragged breathing as the animal plunged over the side of the cliff.
“Hold on,” Valor warned just before the Arovanni’s hooves once again touched rock. Her teeth knocked together at the impact and her nails dug deeper into the leather of the saddle, but she managed to keep silent. The horse ducked its head lower and put on more speed. Jala could see the path now. It was narrow and covered with loose rocks. Had she seen the ground beforehand she wouldn’t have believed even a mountain goat could manage it, and yet they were riding a very large horse down it at entirely unreasonable speed.
Valorous’s shoulder rubbed on the first corner of the path sending blinding sparks off the metal of his barding. Jala let out several rapid breaths and considered closing her eyes for the remainder of the trip. She felt Valor lean forward against her back and faintly remembered his orders enough to lean forward as well. There was another moment of weightless terror as the horse jumped again and then the thundering descent resumed.
“Almost over,” Valor whispered to her as he sat up a bit. She adjusted her position to match his and repeated his words over and over in her mind.
Her world shrank to her own thundering heartbeat that perfectly matched the thundering hooves. She wasn’t even aware she had clenched her eyes shut until they ceased moving. Valor let out a slow hiss behind her and she cautiously opened her eyes. They were stopped with the base of the cliff at their backs. Valorous shuffled beneath them and let out a snort of displeasure. She felt Valor kick his feet free of the stirrups and then dismount.
“What is it?” she whispered, leaning over the saddle toward him. As far as she could tell they were the only occupants of this shadowy corner of hell.
“Cast a light. You will need it,” Valor whispered back as he drew his sword slowly.
Jala nodded faintly, not liking the sound of his words at all, and summoned the light spell. She closed her eyes as she cast the spell to avoid blinding herself and centered it in front of them and above. As she opened her eyes once more, pale violet light illuminated the area around them.
The landscape was rock strewn as it had been on the plateau above, but here and there an occasional tree grew, though they were twisted and gnarled things. They were not alone here either. Crouched on every rock and in the branches of trees were dozens of twisted little creatures. In comparison with the demons they had already fought these things seemed pathetically small, but there were so many of them. “It is plural guardians. Hell is no place for optimists,” Jala said softly. “At least they aren’t big,” she added in what she hoped was a reassuring voice.
“My father’s favorite quote, Even the strongest man can be taken down by rats, comes to mind,” Valor replied dryly. His gaze was locked on the creatures and it was clear that he planned to let them make the first move. “He used it in reference to infantry swarming knights but I think it applies fairly well here.”
“Well, strongest man, maybe, but I’ll be damned if I’ll be taken down by rats,” Jala retorted in the same soft voice. Her eyes were locked on the beady glinting eyes that surrounded them. She had been wrong about her estimate of dozens. It was more like hundreds when you truly looked for the creatures. They covered the ground like a carpet of flesh. They were simply everywhere a body could fit – on the rocks, below the rocks, everywhere. “A Firym would make bloody short work of them. Sadly my Flamebolts seemed to be one of the more unreliable spells here,” she said absently and searched her mind for a spell that would thin the numbers down quickly.
“I want to know what the hell they are waiting for,” Valor grumbled as he shifted his stance and moved his sword to a guard position. His eyes swept the area, and had it not been for the cliff behind them she thought he might have rushed in to fight. Valor had been trained too well to sacrifice good ground however.
Movement toward the trees drew her attention and Jala watched silently as a larger shape moved forward. The smaller creatures parted like water before it as it lumbered through their ranks. “I’m going to guess that,” Jala replied, motioning toward the thing. It began to grow as it neared them. It’s body contorting in sickening jolts. At first it had resembled a mangy dog. Now it was taking on more human-like aspects. Its gait changed from four legs to two as it finally stopped no more than twenty feet from them. Yellow eyes glinted from the canine head. Its black skin was stretched so tight over its bones it seemed more skeletal in appearance than living.
“A bloody shifter,” Valor hissed beside her.
Jala raised an eyebrow and studied the creature closer. She had never seen a shifter in battle form before, though she doubted this was an accurate representation of what a living shifter would look like. It stood perhaps twelve feet at the shoulder with a hunched human posture. Its arms seemed far too long for its body, almost ape-like, though the long talons that tipped each finger were certainly not ape-like. Smiling down at Valor, she winked and then looked back toward their monstrous adversary. “We have no quarrel with you. We seek Death. There is a matter I must speak with her about,” she called in a loud voice, her words echoing off the stones around them clearly. While she sincerely doubted the creature would back down from the fight, it never hurt to try.
“It amazes me how you shift emotions from terror at a ride down a cliff to perfect calm in the face of a twelve foot demon and a horde of his minions,” Valor commented dryly, his sword still held in the guard position. From his posture he apparently didn’t expect the Shifter to back away from the fight either.
“Die,” the shifter responded, his voice so guttural even the single word he spoke was difficult to understand. There was no mistaking the intent, however, as he spread his talons and rushed toward them. Valor moved quickly to meet the charge, placing himself between the creature and Jala. His sword rang off the creature’s talons with a metallic hiss as he parried its first attack and neatly ducked under the creature’s second wild swing.
Jala hesitated in joining the fray, keeping her eyes focused on the smaller creatures instead. She had no doubt that Valor could handle the shifter, but they would both be dead if the smaller demons rushed them while their attention was focused on the leader.
The smaller forms ducked and shifted where they crouched. Their desire for blood was obvious, but they showed no sign of making any moves toward the fight.
The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 3 From the Ashes Page 3