The Coming Storm (36 page)

“It faded. His light went dim, then darker and then it was gone. I can’t see Darker things. Perhaps I can’t see them for the brightness of all the others around them.”

“What is it you see?” Jareth asked, curious.

“Look up,” she said. Her tone was soft, awed. “That, but different.”

Jareth looked up.

They all did.

Above them was the great black vault of the sky with its scattering of thousands of stars. A river of light ran through it, brightly. It was familiar, known.

Tilting her head back to look as well, Ailith said, “For me it’s like that inside my head. See the stars and the formation of stars? That one we call the Loom. Think Loom when you look at the sky and your eyes are drawn to it. Think or say a name and for me it’s the same. Within it there is a great river of stars that’s the heartland, and the river that runs through it. There are constellations, too, and brighter stars and lesser. A brighter patch against a dimmer patch down by Doncerric. Another bright patch where you asked about your mother, Colath. Aerilann, you said. I never knew what it was.”

Jalila shook her head, looking up at the sky. To see all that. Amazing.

She took a breath.

“Well, if Ailith takes the late watch, I’ll join her,” she said, still looking up at the spangled night sky, Ailith close against her shoulder.

“Then we three old men,” Jareth said, giving Ailith a look of mock scorn, “shall take this one.”

Ailith gave him a grin back.

“Sleep then, you two,” Elon said, “we’ll wake you when it’s time.”

It had been a long time since Jalila had shared her bed with anyone, friend or lover.

At first it felt a little odd but Ailith took such little space and in the cool summer night she provided a little extra heat. After a time, Jalila slept.

For a little while Ailith didn’t, although she was weary. That contest with first Colath and then Elon kept replaying in her mind. The singing of sword on sword. She fell asleep still thinking of it.

 Of those on watch, each was wrapped as well in his own thoughts.

The night passed quietly and the dawn rose the same way. Breakfast was travel bread.

Lessons in the bow continued as they rode, although they didn’t concern themselves with targeting birds so early in the day.

Ailith practiced taking her weight from the saddle and holding it with her legs.

As they rode she searched through the stars in her mind, finding the ones she knew were close, learning them, then cast her search out away from them. She couldn’t honestly say whether it would work until she felt a spark.

That first spark.

It seemed vaguely familiar.

Whatever Jalila had been saying to her in that moment was lost.

Her eyelids fluttered a little as she frantically searched through the names of the Guards she knew for one that would match that familiar spark. She’d known them all but not all of them well. Some would have left, she knew. This would be one of the ones who stayed.

A name. Brant. The spark in her mind flared.

Her head turned in that direction, the motion unmistakable to those who watched.

The tension in Ailith’s body couldn’t be missed, as her head snapped around and her eyes searched blindly.

 Jalila went silent.

“Guards,” Ailith said as her eyes cleared and she looked around for a place for them to go.

She glanced quickly at the ground around them and then turned Smoke’s head.

They followed without question.

All the while she kept that spark of light dancing in her mind. It made her head ache to do it.

Elon looked at the ground, at the serpentine route they took to the distant trees.

There was hard ground beneath them. He glanced behind. No hoof prints remained in soft dirt to give them away. That was good thinking. Then they were among the trees and Ailith threw out a hand to grab Jareth’s bridle. Zo tossed her head at being pulled up short so abruptly.

With a tip of her chin in that direction, Ailith said, softly, “The Gorge. Stay still, they should pass.”

Everyone pulled their horses up.

Beyond the trees the force of Guards rode across the ridge looking around, studying the ground. They seemed to find nothing amiss and rode on out of sight.

“I didn’t know that would work,” Ailith said, clearly relieved.

“How close are we?” Jareth asked.

“To the Gorge?” she responded. “Too close. That’s why I stopped here. I’m not exactly sure where the edge is past these trees.”

“It’s not likely that another force of Guards will be out here,” Colath suggested. “Those are now ahead of us.”

Jareth pointed Zo away from the Gorge, the mere thought of it enough to make him shiver. The name alone was all he needed to know to wish to avoid it.

Smothering a small smile, Colath followed as Ailith led them out of the trees again.

“How far to this Bridge?” Elon asked. “Are the Guard likely to cross it?”

Ailith shook her head. “Hunters and Woodsmen are the only ones who know of it. The Guard didn’t need to, their job was to defend the castle. It’s not a bridge in the common sense, Elon. It’s a natural span that the river carved out ages ago from the stone. It’s about three leagues ahead. At this pace, we’ll cross it a little after noon.”

He glanced at Jareth.

Ailith gave him a rueful look and shook her head in warning.

Ah. Elon understood. Jareth wasn’t going to like this. Warning him of it would only make it worse.

Smoke tossed his head and sidled, as did all the horses, suddenly.

Ailith looked around, startled, frowning.

The breeze came from behind them.

Elon took a quick look back over his shoulder and went cold.

In the distance he could clearly see four man-shaped mud-colored figures closing on them at a steady lope. That irregular run was deceptively fast. There was only one prey they could be seeking.

Behind them, cresting the ridge, darkening it, was a flood of the things.

“Drows!” he called, pulling his sword and giving Faer his head. “Go! Ailith, take the lead.”

One glance behind her and Ailith’s eyes went wide in shock and horror.

Drows.

There were so many of them.

At the scent of them in the air Smoke didn’t need urging. Nor did any of the other horses.

“Tolan?” Colath called, his tone grim.

“Probably.” Elon nodded. “This would seem to be his work.”

Grimacing ruefully, Jareth added, “Nice, at least, that he sent only one kind. This way we don’t have to remember how to kill what.”

It was some small consolation.

Jalila had her bow in her hands as she guided Laes with her knees and the shift of her weight.

With a glance behind them, Elon judged they were holding their distance. The drows were not gaining, not yet.

Then one looked up, and then another, as if they sensed their prey trying to escape. They broke into a shambling run that was faster than it seemed.

Elon looked ahead.

To Ailith.

She was nearly standing in her stirrups, her sword in one hand, urging Smoke on even as she peered ahead frantically.

The drows were closing the distance.

Suddenly she turned Smoke’s head for a narrow break in the trees, settled over him and set heels to his ribs.

Jalila glanced behind them, turned in the saddle and let fly.

Her arrow flew true.

The nearest drow bellowed as it fell and tripped up some of his fellows. It was trampled, squalling, as the others scrambled to their feet and ran again.

She’d gained them a few precious seconds.

The trees parted and suddenly they could see that which Gwillim and Ailith called the Bridge.

Elon looked at Colath.

As one, they closed and rode in behind Zo, behind Jareth, who looked at the thing in outright horror.

It was as Ailith had said a natural span. Wide enough for almost three horses across.

Almost.

There were no rails, however, to hold anything from the drop.

The arch of stone vaulted up and over the ragged edges of the Gorge.

As they raced toward it the drop grew ever closer and with each long stride its depth became all the more daunting.

Without pause, Ailith set Smoke at it with no lessening of speed.

It made even Elon’s heart a little unsteady to watch and he was Elf and well used to heights. With the drows behind there was no time to really think on it and no choice in any case. He gestured Jalila ahead of them, in case Jareth tried to halt Zo. They might need the cover her bow provided and only she was accurate enough to cover the distance from edge to edge of the chasm and more.

Jalila leaned into Laes, staying in Ailith’s track.

Her heart lurched as Smoke’s hooves clattered on the stone. Without so much as a toss of his head at the void beneath him Smoke raced across the span.

There was no time to truly register the depth of that cleft in the earth, except that it was deep. Elves could survive the damage from many falls, which was why they rarely feared heights, but a fall of that height would probably kill even her.

Jalila trusted to Laes’s sure hooves and clung to her mane for the first time in their lives.

Don’t panic, Jareth thought frantically, don’t panic, trust Zo but he couldn’t help himself, he sat back instinctively as he saw the depth of the Gorge. He could clearly see the Bridge now but even more clearly see the drop it spanned.

Zo, getting mixed signals from her rider tried to slow, tossing her head.

Except there was the push from Elon and Colath behind.

Both Elon and Colath could see the real depth of  the Gorge as well.

Colath looked at Elon.

It was more than daunting. One false step and one or both of them might go, if not all three of them.

What choice had they, though? There were drows behind and the drop before them. With a nod at each other, he and Elon drove their horses behind Zo. Herded, she had no choice but to go forward.

Ailith’s heart pounded. She’d never crossed the thing at speed before, never.

Wide as it seemed, Gwillim had always had them cross slowly, one at a time, fearing that a misstep by a horse would send both it and its rider into the gaping chasm below. Yet they made it, thanks to Smoke’s sure feet.

Even as they reached the other side she turned him at the end of the crossing, fear-sweat trickling down her back, moving quickly out of the way as Jalila rode across nearly on Smoke’s heels.

The whites of Laes’s eyes were showing. Even the horse had been frightened.

No sooner were they over than Jalila turned Laes and had her bow in her hands.

Ailith gasped at what she saw.

Three horses. Elon and Colath driving Jareth across.

Suddenly the arch of stone of the Bridge looked too small, too fragile and almost airy for what crossed it. They’d never crossed three horses at once. The chasm below looked huge, like a mouth set to swallow them.

Don’t fall, she pleaded silently. She willed it, her heart in her throat.

And then they were across.

Jalila’s bow thrummed and Ailith heard a bellow, yanking her attention back to the Bridge.

Drows, Elon had called them.

In all the years Ailith had ridden out with the Hunters, she’d never seen anything like these creatures, they were the stuff of legends.

Huge, mud-colored and roughly man-shaped, they seemed lumbering but were astonishingly fast. Her bow was in her hands. In that thick mass skill didn’t matter, you couldn’t shoot but hit some part of them. She drew and let fly even as she heard Elon snap Jareth’s name.