Darkness & Light (5 page)

Betreec felt helplessness wash over her as
she realized that even after all this time she still didn't know
where they were, or how to read the map.

"I think so, the cave in and the river?"

I'rone's face went blank for a moment, almost
as if he were making a decision, and then he took her arm and led
her back into the tunnel they'd just exited.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to the stream. It wasn't the far from
here, if we hurry there's still a chance we'll be quick
enough."

Betreec's mind whirled with questions the
entire half-cycle they spent all but running through the caves, but
she couldn't figure out what I'rone was planning on doing. As they
finally reached the swiftly moving water, she cast her senses free
once again and found the dimming spark of the little girl's mind.
She lost the spark in astonishment when I'rone grabbed her
shoulders and pulled her around to face him.

"Which direction?"

"What?"

"Which direction is she in?"

"It doesn't work that way. I can get a vague
idea of how she's doing, and a rough estimate of distance, but I
can't just reach out and point towards her. Maybe a full blown rock
shaper could, but I'm not that strong, not nearly that strong."

The words were out of her mouth before she
realized she'd just broken what was possibly the most important
rule out of all the many strictures given the Daughters. You didn't
tell any of the candidates how strong you were. You didn't put
yourself at risk of becoming nothing more than an object for
someone seeking power. She wanted a marriage driven by love, but
even more importantly she didn't want someone to marry her just
because doing so would make him stronger or faster than other
Guadel.

Betreec felt her world closing in around her,
but before she could begin hyperventilating, I'rone shook her.

"I don't care about how strong you are or
aren't. We need to save her, so stop worrying about unimportant
things and try to find her."

Being shaken, especially by I'rone who'd
never demonstrated even the slightest bit of anger, doused
Betreec's panic almost instantly. She pushed aside worries over the
poor, freezing girl they no longer had any hope of helping, and
instead opened her mind back up and reached for the guttering spark
at the edge of her range.

It was no use, her efforts brought the glow
slightly more into focus, but not enough to tell where she was in
relationship to Betreec's own mind spark. It was hopeless. She'd
never truly felt worthless before. Not in the things the mattered,
not in flirting with boys, not in magic theory, not in anything
that she cared even the slightest bit about. She'd always been more
than good enough until today. Until I'rone turned her down without
even a moment's hesitation, until she couldn't help a frightened
little girl who wanted nothing more than to return home to the
parents who loved her.

A haze of anger enveloped Betreec, and she
pushed against her limitations, against the walls inside her mind
that had always defined just how much she could do, just how much
power she could draw inside herself without burning out her
abilities. For the briefest of moments the girl's mind sharpened
into clearer focus, and then she felt the world rush up to meet
her.

Betreec opened her eyes to find she was
cradled in I'rone's arms. Too distracted to dwell on the fact that
she had finally found herself in exactly the situation she'd
dreamed about so often before, Betreec pulled herself back to her
feet, pointing off to the left as she wiped a bead of perspiration
from her upper lip.

"I think she's off that way. Maybe a little
below us too."

I'rone's eyes widened slightly, and Betreec
looked down at her hand and found that it wasn't sweat that she'd
just wiped from her face.

"It's just a nosebleed. Means I overexerted
myself, but probably not enough to do any permanent damage. What's
your plan?"

The smile that answered her query was
bittersweet, but it only graced I'rone's face for a split second
before he pointed at the water.

"There's no way to be positive, but the only
place we haven't explored yet is down there. It seems impossible,
but maybe she fell into the water, and then somehow made it back
out."

The newfound bravery wilted slightly in
Betreec's chest as she contemplated all of the terrible things
possibly awaiting them in the swift current. Dropoffs, waterfalls,
tunnels completely filled with water, jagged rocks that would
dismember them as surely as any snow leopard or pack of wolves.

I'rone watched silently as she weighed the
options before them, and then smiled again when she finally
nodded.

The water was icier than Betreec had
expected. It stabbed into her flesh with needles of agony, and
tugged at her legs with surprising force. Only her free hand,
solidly on I'rone's massive shoulder, saved her from falling.
I'rone led the way, cautiously probing the floor with his walking
pole as they advanced one slow step at a time.

Surrounded by deepening water, that was
quickly sucking all feeling out of her legs, Betreec felt her
courage shatter. She wanted to yell at I'rone over the deepening
rumble of the water, to order him to turn around, but as she opened
her mouth to do so she lost her footing and crashed into him.

Water flooded into her mouth as it picked her
up and slammed her into a series of rocks. Her fist reflexively
locked tight around their glow sphere, and then she felt herself
falling.

There was only a split second for Betreec to
register that somehow she'd tumbled over a waterfall, and then
something wrenched at her arm, nearly ripping it from its socket as
her movement was arrested with a speed as impossible as it was
welcome.

Betreec looked up to find I'rone using her
left arm to drag her back up.

"How did you catch up with me? How could you
possibly have saved me?"

I'rone pointed back upstream, "The tunnel
broadens out just after where you lost your footing. The water
actually slows down a little and gets shallower as a result. Other
than that I'm not sure, it felt like I was moving in slow motion, I
didn't think I was going to make it in time."

Betreec reached for I'rone's hand only to
hiss as she saw how badly cut up it was.

"Did you do that saving me?"

I'rone's pulled his hand back, less she
thought out of pain, than out of a desire not to have her touch
him.

"It's not important, can you feel the girl
still?"

Betreec reached out with senses that seemed
raw and crinkly, like skin that had been badly burnt. At first she
thought the even dimmer glow meant they'd somehow traveled further
away from the girl, but then she found a second, stronger glow. She
felt her knees start to go out from under again, but I'rone stopped
her before she could join the slight trickle of water tumbling over
the lip of the cliff.

"She's here, just down there I think, but
she's not alone."

For the first time she could remember,
confusion flashed across I'rone's eyes. Under other circumstances
she might have enjoyed the sight, but not now.

"There's a snow leopard near her."

The words exited her mouth in a whisper. She
wanted to explain that there was no way she could have known, that
non-human minds are too dim to be seen easily, but it all seemed so
futile. They'd made it so far, only to have to turn around and
fail.

I'rone stared off in the direction she'd
indicated and then sighed and opened their pack. He pulled out a
strange lump of metal with a loop affixed to it and started
hammering it into a crack in the wall before she realized he wasn't
planning to turning around.

"We have to go back and get help. You can't
kill a snow leopard. We'll both just die."

A thin rope was threaded through the loop,
and the pack was securely around Betreec's abused shoulders before
I'rone met her gaze again.

"We can't just leave her. Wait up here until
the fight is resolved. If I don't manage to kill it, then you'll
have to go back and just hope she somehow makes it long enough for
help to arrive. If I do manage to kill it, the two of you will have
enough provisions to last a day or so until help comes."

"What about you?" Her voice came out smaller
than she meant it to.

I'rone shrugged, and then picked up the steel
walking pole from the bottom of the stream. He double checked the
long dagger at his waist and then pointed at the glow stone in her
hand.

"Light will be important, but don't let
yourself fall off."

The rope went slithering down the face of the
cliff, stopping just short of the shallow pool at the bottom of the
falls, and then I'rone was on his way to what every story Betreec
had ever heard indicated was sure death.

As her companion steadily descended, into the
near darkness, Betreec felt a tightness in her chest that had
nothing to do with being slammed against rocks, or the fact she was
shivering violently from the cold. I'rone didn't know this girl any
more than she did, but he was going to sacrifice his life on the
slim chance he'd be able to kill the snow leopard and allow Betreec
to get her out safely.

Countless candidates and guard trainees had
sought to impress Betreec and her friends through wild tales of how
brave they would be once they finished their training. She'd never
heard even the most mild boast out of I'rone, but he was about to
do something worthy of any of the full Guadel she'd ever met.

Her mind racing, Betreec cast about for
something she could do to stop I'rone from going to his death. She
sunk to her knees as her mind came back blank. Maybe prayer really
was the only option.

##

I'rone's injured right hand alternated
between dull pain and burning agony each time he touched the rope,
but he forced the pain back into a small corner of his mind and
walled it off as best he could. Fear of what was to come next was
harder to silence, but he focused on how scared the little girl
must be, and tried to concentrate on moving as silently as
possible. Things would be hopeless enough even if he managed to
somehow make it all the way down to the ground without alerting the
snow leopard to his presence. If it was waiting for him, he'd die
before he ever even managed to set his feet on the ground.

The cold ate away at his strength and
determination as he slowly traversed the last half of the rope down
into the huge cavern. He hadn't gotten quite as wet as Betreec, but
there was still only so much gurra wool could do to insulate when
it was wet, and he felt his teeth threaten to begin chattering.

He silently dropped the last couple of feet,
and then sunk into a motionless crouch as he attempted to bring
Javin's training to the forefront of his mind. Once the fight began
there would be little if any time for thought or analysis.
Everything would become a whirlwind of motion and reflexes that had
to be acquired beforehand by hard hours of work.

They'd all heard it, but most of his fellow
candidates didn't really understand yet. They watched the
incredible speed of their sponsors and envied the older men without
realizing that true speed was only possible if you stopped thinking
and reacted out of instinct.

Of course it hadn't been easy for I'rone to
make that transition himself. Once Javin had been satisfied with
his technique, he'd attacked I'rone again and again in practice
until his protégée had finally understood what his laconic sponsor
had really been trying to teach him. Javin had 'sold' the attacks
and I'rone had been sure on more than one occasion that he might be
seriously injured in the process, but he hadn't stopped. It would
have been much easier to just go back to the regular weapons
classes where he was the top of his class, but something inside him
had refused to give up. The people the Guadel were sworn to protect
didn't have the option of walking away unscathed when things became
too much for them, and therefore neither did I'rone.

I'rone caught what sounded like sobs coming
ever so faintly from ahead him, and then his mind spun into
frenzied analysis. Thought wouldn't save you once the fight began,
but it often determined the outcome beforehand more surely than any
sword or dagger.

He was no match for a snow leopard, but even
more so out in the open where it could spring at him. The part
inside him that wanted to live was screaming now, demanding that he
climb back up the rope, but he opened his mouth, letting loose with
the most powerful yell he was capable of, and then the traitor part
of him didn't matter anymore.

It was too late to run now, and he felt his
breathing calm as an answering feline hiss slid out of the
darkness. The snow leopard came around the corner slowly, and if it
looked gaunt from starvation, there was still a smooth arrogance to
its movements that assured I'rone it would be more than strong
enough to finish him off.

The slender steel walking rod in his right
hand did less to reassure him even than the dagger in his other
hand, but he gripped both weapons as he waited for the snow leopard
to finish sizing him up and attack.

Actual combat was different than he'd
expected. He didn't feel necessarily brave like all the stories had
indicated, but then those parts hadn't ever seemed all that
believable. He hadn't expected however to feel the strange sense of
pressure building inside his head. At first he thought it was
nothing more than his imagination, but as the leopard crossed the
last third of the distance separating them, the pressure blossomed
into outright pain.

I'rone wanted to collapse to his knees, but
duty kept him on his feet as he prepared for the attack to come. He
momentarily felt as though his mind was being turned inside out,
and then suddenly the snow leopard's haunches bunched with muscle
and it was too late to do anything but try to intercept the
hurtling mass of feline with the walking pole.