Spirit Gate: Book One of Crossroads (93 page)

“You are right, and you are wrong,” he said.

“Often right, but rarely wrong!” she retorted.

He lifted his staff, and all cried out when a light flashed from its end, no more than a candle’s spark, quickly extinguished. A wind rose, and out of the sky roiled two great shadows. The hierodules and kalos shrieked and fell back under the cover of the veranda. Only the Hieros held her ground.

Two horses seemed to leap out of the sky and come to earth in the courtyard. They had vast wings, and delicate legs, and handsomely formed heads. When the girl saw them, her mouth dropped open. She looked at the man, and he nodded. Cautiously, she ventured forward to introduce herself to the beasts with the manners of a person who feels comfortable with horses.

The Hieros touched her fingers to her forehead, in prayer.

At length, she lowered her fingers, then raised her head and looked at him. Her expression was somber. Her tone had changed. “I will be your ally, if you will trust me.”

The man touched the heel of his hand to his breast in a gesture of respect as he gave a slight bow to the Hieros. “You are an honest servant, holy one, if a bit hardhearted. Listen!”

They heard the hiss of the approaching rains over the water, but it was his voice they listened for.

“The Guardians are not lost. For here, now, stand two of us. I, who am old and weary of running and hiding. And this one, who is newly cloaked and awakened, as
ignorant of what she is now as I am ignorant of who she was before she came into the Hundred.”

The Hieros staggered, but caught herself on the arm of one of her deputies. The soft night rains swept over the garden, pattering among the leaves, showering a mist over them. Among the hierodules and kalos, many began to weep softly. Hearing their distress, she recovered herself, and nodded, to show he should continue.

“You are right,” he said, “that we must defend the heart of the Hundred and the laws which sustain the land. But you are wrong in thinking there has been peace until now, that there has been peace in the Hundred these last many years.”

“Go on.” She was no longer afraid.

In his gentle smile rested the weight of long years of struggle. “The war for the soul of the Guardians has already begun.”

KATE ELLIOTT
is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the Novels of the Jaran and, most recently, the Crown of Stars fantasy series.
King’s Dragon,
the first novel in that series, was a Nebula Award finalist;
The Golden Key
(with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson) was a World Fantasy Award finalist;
Jaran
was named a
VOYA
Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Novel of 1992, and was a
Locus
Recommended Science Fiction Novel of 1992. Born in Iowa and raised in Oregon, she lives in Hawaii.