Dawnsinger (21 page)

Fighting the uneasy sensation that she and Ruescht careened through the mist, alone and lost, she willed herself to calm. She could not see, but somehow Ruescht could. Although it made their passage more difficult, the mist saved them from the welke’s sharp eyes. She felt better when stray currents tore holes in the shimmering veil to reveal Kai and Flecht just ahead and Dorann behind.

They slipped into a side canyon and spiraled downward alongside roaring waters that fell into darkness. Icy spray combined with mist to penetrate her cloak, making her shiver. She clutched the reins with hands gone numb, for she’d left her doeskin gloves behind beside her bedroll. Would she ever again find warmth, taste a hot meal, or sleep in a soft bed?

She chided herself for such unworthy thoughts. She should be grateful to escape the welkes at all. Many comfortless nights remained before them. How would she survive if she dwelt on her privations?

Ruescht followed Flecht to the canyon floor. She landed with the others in the midst of
keirken
trees. As the flapping of welke wings grew louder, Ruescht stomped her hooves and snorted. Caught off-guard, Shae jerked the reins, and the small wingabeast reared. Shae clutched the pommel, just managing to keep her seat. As soon as her front hooves hit the ground, Ruescht bolted.

Forced to duck branches, Shae bounced sideways in the saddle. Ruescht turned onto a deer trail, and Shae tried to rein in her wingabeast. Foam flecked from Ruescht’s mouth and her sides heaved. Hoofbeats told Shae that the others followed. A small creature scurried into the underbrush, and Ruescht skidded sideways. The small wingabeast broke through the trees—and reared. Obscured behind rainbow clouds of spray that stole Shae’s breath, the waterfall plunged beneath them into a churning pool. Ruescht could go no farther.

The others reached them, and Guaron dismounted. He caught Ruescht’s reins, although the fight had already gone out of the small wingabeast, who bowed her head as if ashamed. Shae slid from her back and stood on shaking legs.

Kai dismounted and hurried to her. “Are you unharmed?”

Wrapping her arms about herself, she gave a brief nod. She remembered their pursuers, and her eyes widened. “But the welke riders—“

“They’re gone, at least for now. The waterfall’s roaring must have covered the sounds we made.”

Aerlic dismounted and joined them. “We have your wingabeast
to thank for one thing, at least.” He nodded toward a cave in the canyon wall. “We should be able to shelter there.”

Aerlic went first into the cave. At his signal, Shae followed through the gaping hole that smelled of moist stone—and passed into darkness. For in that instant Freaer touched her soul. She shrank from his touch, and it slid away. Crouching in the dark cave with the others, she kept what had happened to herself. Freaer would never give up searching for her.

The flapping of welke wings echoed through the canyons all that day, so they stayed put. Nightfall made little difference to the cave’s blackness. Kai gave his bedroll to Shae. He, in turn, would borrow the bedroll of whoever stood watch. She slept at once, untroubled by dreams and lulled by the waterfall’s muted roar.

Shae roused to Dorann’s whisper. “
Infectious… Wait it out… Poultice…”

A tiny light highlighted Dorann’s and Aerlic’s faces. It also showed Kai, who tossed and turned.

Shae sat up. “What’s wrong?”

Dorann shifted nearer to her. “His wound has gone septic. Fever wracks his body.”

As Kai thrashed and cried out, Aerlic restrained him.

She crawled toward Kai and touched his heated forehead. Water sloshed, and Dorann placed a cloth on Kai’s brow. His thrashing eased, but Shae wanted to weep, he looked so gaunt.

When Dorann wrang out another cloth, she reached for it. “Let me.”

Dorann relinquished the damp cloth and brought the bowl of water closer. “That’s well, then. Aerlic should return to watch, and I need to search for plantains.”

“Plantains?”

“They’re often found growing in moist places. I should find all I need for a poultice to draw the infection from Kai’s wound.”

Dorann bent, and soon another flame flared to life. Shae blinked in the light of the lanthorn he lifted. “Rouse Guaron if you can’t contain Kai’s thrashing, although that’s not likely, he’s so weak.”

When Kai stirred again, she cooled his brow with a fresh cloth. Her touch soothed him, but before long he called Taelerat’s name and struck out, as if fighting a foe. She restrained him until the fit passed, and then bathed his brow again.

He fell into a deep sleep, and she cradled him. When his breathing became labored, fear caught her by the throat. Kai couldn’t die!

Dorann returned just as welke wings flapped overhead. The wingabeasts stirred in their corner of the cave, but Guaron hissed a command and they quieted. Shae recovered enough wit to extinguish the lanthorn. Moonlight limned Aerlic, who watched at the mouth of the cave, bow in hand. But the beating of wings faded into distance.

They ventured out at midday. Guaron led the wingabeasts to water’s edge, where they drank their fill and spread their wings in the sun. Aerlic and Dorann supported Kai between them, to lay him on a flat rock beside the pool so he could stretch out. Shae sat beside him and touched his brow, now clammy. Shivers wracked him even in the warmth of the sun.

“The fever has passed,” Dorann said. “Fresh air and sunlight may bring its own cure.”

“It’s no wonder he became ill in that damp place.” Shae wished they could leave the murky cave behind. Brael Shadd glinted above the trees even now, a reminder that her time was limited.

Kai watched her with dull eyes. “Leave me and go.”

She started, for he spoke as if he followed her thoughts. She shook her head. “I’ll not.”

“Shae, you have no choice.” He sighed. “I meant only to bring you help, but I’ve slowed you down.”

“You do help me, Kai. Now, speak no more.” She did not say what filled her mind to distraction. They would leave tomorrow, whatever Kai’s condition. But she couldn’t imagine going on without him.

“What’s this?” He caught a tear that fell to her cheek.

Birdsong trilling from a thicket of wild roses pierced her heart. She pulled away but felt his gaze follow her to the pool’s edge, where she bathed her feet. She did not turn her head to meet it.

****

Kai watched Shae wade into the bright waters, her hair, slipping from its plait, ablaze in the sunlight. Just now he’d seen something in her face—a recognition that frightened her. Fair enough. He shared her reticence. But he could not contain the rush of joy that lit him at the sight of her.

Right or wrong, he couldn’t bring himself to let Shae go on into peril without him. At least a measure of strength returned with another night’s rest and Dorann’s continued efforts to cure his wound of its poisons. But Kai stayed astride Flecht more by his wingabeast’s skill than his own power. Letting Aerlic take the lead, he fell back to ride beside Shae.

With dawn reddening the shoulders of the eastern canyons, they lifted out of the narrow side canyon and followed Weild Aenor as it coursed from Maegrad Ceid toward the great southern marshes of Weithein Faen.

The mist thinned and shredded. Although the sun beat down, Kai shivered. He knew they journeyed in gentle stages for his sake. Tomorrow he would tell them not to spare him, but today he made no protest.

****

Dorann waded into the shallows with a net. Aerlic joined him, and the two soon strode past Shae with a catch of rainbow-colored
percken
. She hummed while combing her hair in the fleeting warmth of the sun. Shielded in the canyon’s lea, she could forget for a time the terrible journey before her.

She flicked a glance to Kai, who slept in the shade of nearby
keirkens
,
his wound newly dressed with a poultice of
aergenwoad
. In the meadow behind her, the wingabeasts cropped green grass.

A sun-warmed boulder countered the brisk wind that blew in from the water, and Shae settled against it with a sigh. The tang of keirken leaves, damp rock, and humus filled her senses. How small she felt as she gazed into the sky where high clouds scuttled. Her eyelids grew heavy. The rushing of the
weild
grew louder, and then faded….

Spiders touched her face.

Shae bolted upright and fought the arms that restrained her.

Kai laughed. “It was but the petals of early flowers. I thought only to wake you.”

She pushed him away with a glare.
“Don’t ever do that again!”

Her anger only made him laugh harder.

She turned her back to him but could not prevent the smile that tugged at her mouth. She scooped up a a handful of the petals he’d dropped and threw them into the air. Some of them landed in his hair. She laughed now, too.

Kai shook the petals from his hair, and then combed through hers. At the sensation of his fingers against her scalp, the laughter died in her throat. His expression bemused, he caressed her cheek with a feather-light touch. At the light in his eyes, her breath hitched and her pulse beat a wild rhythm.

The corners of Kai’s mouth quirked upward. “May I have the pleasure of escorting so beautiful a r
aena
to the hall?”

She smiled at his nonsense but stood with him and rested her arm in the crook of his elbow. Together they walked toward the camp. The aroma of roasting fish mingled with the sweetness of burning
Draetenn
wood from the cooking fire to tantalize her. As the fire crackled and smoke curled to meet the gathering mists, she ate her fill.

She curled up in her bedroll as the fire fell to embers and daylight softened into moonlight. The wind that seemed always to blow through the canyons came now as a cooling breeze, and the river sang a lullaby.

Morning arrived, too soon.

Once mounted, Shae leaned down to scratch behind Ruescht’s
ear. “I wish we didn’t have to leave this place.” She straightened and took a last look at the green grasses swaying in the morning breeze.

Kai reined in his wingabeast and tossed Shae a smile. “Perhaps, in happier times, we can return.”

Aerlic flashed his rogue’s smile. “We’ll have to come back so Dorann and I can fish again.”

Dorann laughed. “Still hoping to catch a bigger fish than mine?”

Guaron smiled at the two, but then sobered. “I wonder how Elcon fares.”

Shae frowned. Faeraven’s loyal shraens might join the guardians and the town’s inhabitants to defend Torindan in the present crisis, but real deliverance would come only if she succeeded in releasing the DawnKing at Gilead Riann. “We must go on.” She eyed Kai. He looked stronger today, but pale.

He answered her unspoken question. “I will endure. We should reach Krei Doreinn this day and, if we hurry, the ruins of Braeth in the Smallwood of Syllid Mueric
on the
morrow. Don’t spare me.”

She stroked Ruescht’s mane to hide her sudden fear. “Must we sleep at Krei Doreinn?” The ancient battleground where three canyons met carried its share of specter tales. She had also heard stories of enchantment within the Smallwood of Syllid Mueric.

Kai shrugged. “Syllid Mueric
is too large to cross in a day, even on the back of wingabeasts, but we can make it with only one stop if we camp in the meadow at Krei Doreinn.”

All eyes turned to him.

“We will sleep in the Place of Blood?” Dorann asked in shocked tones.

Kai shrugged. “I mislike
Paiad Burein
myself, but at least its trees offer cover.”

Aerlic stilled Argalent’s prancing. “Trees cannot hide us from some things,”

Kai gave a tight nod. “True enough, but do you prefer spending two nights rather than one in Syllid Mueric?”

Shae said no more but she would rather not sleep in Paiad Burein. She preferred meeting flesh and blood adversaries over those who dwelt in shadow. But the weight of Maeven’s dagger, Leisht, in its sheath beneath her sleeve comforted her as she sent Ruescht into flight behind Argalent.

At least the welke riders searched for them no more, although she thought she understood their disappearance. Why should Freaer search for her when Prophecy itself told him her destination, and he could find her anyway with the shil shael? She must learn to guard herself, even in sleep. She suspected Freaer would try to overcome Torindan first, then her. They must press on with speed, even if it meant sleeping among the restless dead.

18

Battleground

“I don’t like this place.”

Kai gave Aerlic no response. What could he say? He didn’t like it either. Prickles of awareness ran over his skin as the ruckus of battle pressed, just at the edge of hearing. It seemed the very air could not forget what had happened here.

Flecht shifted beneath him, and Kai put a soothing hand on his wingabeast’s neck as he gazed across the turbulent waters of Krei Doreinn. A tributary of Weild Rivenn fed into Weild Aenor here, the two rivers colliding in a mad frenzy amid much roaring. Whirlpools and eddies worked through the waters. Submerged stones thumped. Floating logs spun, crashed, and went under only to surface further south. Beyond Krei Doreinn, the torrent spilled out of the canyons and fanned into estuaries where it merged with the salt waters of Maer Syldra to spread into the great marshland of Weithein Faen.

In the fall, the rivers would recede, but now in the early spring they swelled to overflow their banks, running right to the edge of deep fern-encrusted canyons. No traveler could reach this place in safety by land or water when the rivers ran high. Even the air currents played tricks where the three canyons met, and it required resourcefulness to guide the wingabeasts through them.

Kai led the way into a lush grassy area starred with gentians in shades of white and blue. Overgrown keirkens blended with draetenns along the edges of the meadow. They could hide here, if need be, beneath a leafy canopy and amid tangled undergrowth rife with sweetberries and wild roses.