The Heartstone (23 page)

As she passed into the center, the light bathed everything with a cool pure glow. Ariana stepped into the center of the circle and lifted the Heartstone over her head. The light intensified and energy rose like a column from the depths of the earth pouring out of the Stone to the sky. The light bounced off the pillars and focused on one spot in the ceiling right above her. Energy beamed to a small point that glowed white-hot.

The energy poured through her and up to the roof of the cavern. It filled her. The power swept her up with it and she couldn’t see anything or hear anything except the sweet white light of the Stone. Rock groaned, shifted, and with a tremendous noise the roof shifted and the entire top of the mountain opened. The pillar of light shot up until it reached through the twilight sky to the full moon above.

Ariana was the light, flooding the twilight sky with silver, drawing closer to the moon, merging in ecstasy. She was almost there. An alabaster staircase made of moonlight coalesced from the pool and led up to the great opening. Ariana heard the muffled sobs of the prostrate priestesses and then nothing else as she crumpled to the cold floor.

The next thing she knew she was held and given small sips of cold water. There was a wet cloth on her head.

“Dear, you must hurry. You don’t have much time. The stairway wanes with the moon.”

While she spoke Rhyanna took the robe off Ariana and handed her traveling clothes. Everything was clean and new or mended, even her boots resoled. A knapsack that bulged with food and water completed the ensemble. Quickly Ariana dressed and put her knife on her hip. Her finger caressed the hilt.

“Inside the pack is food and water. Geneth wishes to come with you if you will permit it.”

“But it’s too dangerous.”

“Please Lady Ariana, I would serve you.” Geneth’s eyes beseeched her.

“OK, I can’t resist you. It’ll be nice to have the company. I don’t know what to say. Thank you all so much. I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too Ariana. I am glad we came together like this and I was able to help Julia’s daughter restore the Heartstone even in this small way.” There were tears in Rhyanna’s eyes. Rhyanna hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “All our hopes go with you, blessings on your journey.” She stepped back.

Ariana stepped onto the moonbeam stairs. They looked translucent but were solid underfoot. Geneth followed a few steps behind. Tears streamed down her face at leaving her friends. But joy beamed through the tears at beginning a great adventure. Ariana looked back as she neared the top. Everyone stood silent in the great open cavern. A great sea of expectant faces looked up. She turned to the gateway, smelled the fresh air, the breeze chill on her skin and stepped forward into the night.

Ariana and Geneth walked in the silvered darkness for a few minutes. Ariana glanced over at her young companion. Geneth was pale and shaken by the magic she had witnessed a few minutes ago. Ariana didn’t blame her. She had been overwhelmed by the power of Leudwen, the first gate.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Oh yes, honored one.”

Ariana frowned in the darkness. Abruptly she stopped and faced the girl.

“No, don’t call me “Honored One.” I thought we settled this before. If you want to travel with me, you have to stop calling me that. What is my name Geneth?”

“Ar…Ariana”

“Good, don’t forget it.”

They continued walking through featureless hills of jagged pebbles and cinders extended infinitely into the dark. The only clear place to walk was the trail stretched out before them like a ribbon of silver. It led west toward a further ridge of mountains. Ariana was surprised the trail was so clear. It was a dark night despite the bright moonlight.

“Why is the trail so clear and bright?”

“When you opened the Gate, the powers of Luna became yours. The trail is invisible to those not given the gift. If any should come unwary and forbidden to these lands they would wander forever lost and blind. You linked to it through the gate and the blessing of Leudwen. Look around, does not the night seem bright to you.”

Looking around Ariana realized that it seemed like twilight instead of the middle of the night. By concentrating, she was even able to see each individual stone limned by the moonlight.

“Do you see it this way also?”

“Yes, but not as clearly. You have been blessed with Luna’s sight.”

They kept walking. Ariana was entranced with her new vision and time flew by. Cresting the top of yet another hill Ariana realized that she was tired. The distant peaks were still distant. She turned to Geneth with a tired smile.

“Let’s take a rest. I was going to wait until morning but… What?”

Geneth looked at her strangely. “Morning never comes here. These lands are sacred to Luna, the mother of night; the sun never shows his face.”

“But…”

“Time is different here. A day here can be either a month or five minutes outside the gates.”

Ariana looked around. Everything was still bathed in silver radiance. There wasn’t even the tinge of dawn. She looked closer. “What else do you know about the land between the gates, Geneth?”

“They are legend. No one I know has ever been here before. They exist as a blessed resting-place for Luna’s servants. But there are also dangers here for the unwary. The borderlands are the boundary between Leudwen and Heulwen.”

“We’ll have to go on that then until we know more. For now we rest.”

The journey continued. They rested when they were tired and ate when they were hungry. There was no way to mark time. They could have been on the trail for three days or two weeks they had no way of knowing. The trail wound through the unchanging cinders that crunched under their boots. Looking up from the hypnosis of motion and the silver lure of the trail Ariana noticed something. Turning the corner, she noticed an indentation in the cinders as if someone had flattened out the ground to strike a tent and there were the remains of a fire. It was their campsite from the previous night.

“That’s our campsite. We’re going in circles.” Ariana’s voice sounded loud in her own ears.

It had been utterly silent up to now: the steady tramp of their feet and whispers of their breath the only sound. The silence of the cinder hills had seemed too profound to be sullied with voices. Without questioning it, they had journeyed in companionable silence.

They looked at each other appalled. Ariana opened her mouth to continue, when she heard a noise. Shattering the stillness, it sounded like distant barking.

“What is that?” she asked.

Geneth grew pale. Grabbing Ariana’s hand, she leapt down the trail like a frightened doe.

“What is it?” Ariana gasped as they pounded down the cinder trail.

“The hunt!”

They fled. The baying came closer. It grew triumphant. The hounds had found their scent. Ariana thought she heard different dogs, the ringing bell tone of the hounds and the higher pitched cries of the coursers as they sighted their prey. Ariana knew that any minute she would feel the heat of their frenzied breath, rending teeth biting into her flesh. Faster and faster, they ran, hearts pumping, gasping for air. Now they heard the hooves of the horsemen behind the trailing hounds pounding on the trail. They would never outrun these hunters.

Geneth stumbled almost knocking them both over. Her hair had fallen from its neat braid and hung in sweaty elflocks around her face. Ariana grabbed a wildly flailing arm and looked back into Geneth’s frightened eyes. “I’m lost save yourself.” She panted.

“Never.” Ariana shook Geneth by the arm, “Hurry!” Instinctively her mind sought the Heartstone. She needed more strength. As she felt its presence there was a great surge of light in her mind and she got an idea.

She wasn’t sure if she could do it. The power of the Stone surged up in her and
she felt as if she were floating. Without breaking stride she opened herself up to the power and held on to Geneth’s arm.

“Geneth, don’t let go whatever happens.” Ariana thought of speed and power. “Hold on,” she yelled.

The Heartstone blazed. In two great bounds, they overleaped the cinder hills the sharp rocks cutting into tender feet. She came down running on a great wide plain. Then there was nothing except running. The dogs followed in a flood of red eyes and yellow fangs. The scrabbling of their claws was loud on the cinder hills, the thunder of their voices a not so distant roar.

The flat plain galvanized the prey. New strength and power came into them as they ran faster and faster. The world filled with the thunder of feet, the labored breathing of the girls and the panting baying pack behind them. After an endless time, there was a glimmer of water on the horizon. All too quickly, they were there.

Like a white avalanche, the sky filled with the slender whipcord shapes of coursers and hounds. Silent now the hounds ringed their quarry, sides heaving, and mouths red against the brilliant white of their coats. Their eyes too were red and glowed as they watched the captives. A horn blew in the distance and the dogs drew back. They came alert, a small twitching of their coats the only sign. Their eyes grew eager and from some, a slight breath of a whine sounded.

There were two; mounted on tall slender horses the quicksilver color of mercury. Slowly they rode up. A quick blast on the horn the larger one carried and the hounds backed away even further. They settled down on their haunches panting from the chase. Alert they watched with small snarls. An abrupt hand gesture and the dogs went utterly still. Quick as thought the smaller hunter threw out a silver lasso.

Ariana stood in front of Geneth who lay on the gritty gray sand lining the edge of the river. Hounds encircled them. Behind the dogs were two shadowy tall and slender beings mounted on tall slender horses. The horses were tall and whippet thin. Ariana couldn’t see their riders clearly.

A silver lasso bound her to Geneth. She couldn’t remember how she had gotten here. She didn’t know if they were friend or foe. Her head hurt. Her mind was full of confused images of dogs and running. She felt a trickle of warm blood running down her calves.

She tried to move but was immobile. She couldn’t even blink her eyes.

“What art thou?” asked the larger of the beings. The voice was neuter.

“I…”

“What do you do here?”

Ariana peered into the shining nimbus to see a face.

“It is not for you to see our faces, Intruders.” The one who held them said.

There was a bright flash of light; Ariana and Geneth dropped to their knees. Ariana’s head rang, a sudden headache throbbing behind her eyes. Two silver arrows quivered in the grass in front of them.

“Know the penalty for untruth. Those are arrows marked for thy hearts.”

“I am Ariana and this is Geneth.”

“Intruders, the penalty for trespass in our kingdom is death unless there be mercy given. What reason is there that you trespass?”

“I seek the path to the Second Gate Heulwen. I am going to Serenvale. I bear the Heartstone and seek to return it to the Web of Stars.”

“Enough, girl. Show us the Stone.”

Obediently, she took the Stone from under her tunic. It gleamed under the moonlight like a frosted diamond casting their captor’s faces into sharp relief. They had the semblance of humanity. They were inhumanly beautiful like the silver edge of a knife blade or the round perfection of a drop of blood. Severely neutral, ageless, sexless they seemed made of air and light. Their eyes were black and ancient.

As they looked at the Stone Ariana could sense a timeless communion as if they had all come into being at the same time. The taller nodded once and the horses stepped back a pace.

“It is enough. Cross the river and you will find the gate of Heulwen. Come not this way again. Be warned. We are the Hunters. The Stone will not save you again.”

The rope binding them disappeared. Lifting a horn, the smaller hunter sent a pure clear tone ringing out into the silence. The pack turned as one and left in search of new quarry. The hunters followed. They didn’t look at the women again.

Not until the last hoof beat faded into silence did Ariana or Geneth dare move. In the stillness, Ariana and Geneth looked at each other. Ariana saw her own fear reflected in the white face of the girl next to her. Wordless they turned to the river. The cloudy water flowed sluggishly by them. A wall of mist obscured the opposite bank. Ariana didn’t want to touch the scummy surface that roiled past. She hesitated. Any minute the hunters could come back. They had to get across the river now.