Chapter 60: Undaunted

Chapter 60: Undaunted

Though a spark, Eli watched Riadn climb down the lumpy stone wall.

Despite her injuries, she moved as easily as if she were walking down a staircase. He watched Lara follow with equal ease--despite her injuries.

Then he exchanged a glance with Payde, who scratched his jaw and said, "Couple of lightweights. It's nothing for them. If I try that, I'll tumble pommel over haft."

"I'm not looking forward to it myself," Eli admitted.

Payde raised his voice. "Fetch us a ladder, lass! Have mercy on the gallant wounded and the blessed halt!"

"A ladder?" Eli asked.

"She's resourceful."

"You called her 'captain?'"

"That's right. She's in charge."

"So how come you, uh, keep giving her orders?"

"Noticed that, did you? Well, there's a good reason, I can assure you of that. A blessed good reason." He gave Eli a solemn look. "It's on account of I like giving orders. And she obeys me, too--unless she disagrees, in which case I obey."

"Sounds like a system."

"Works for us." Payde inspected Eli. "Your Lara, is she any good with that bow?"

"She hit me more'n she hit the bear. With a blowgun, though, she can pin a hummingbird at twenty paces."

"Dryads," Payde said, shaking his head.

"Dryn," Eli said.

"Oh, aye. No offense."

"So who's your old friend? The one who wrote the message the lady sent?"

"Fellow named ... well, Lawrence. Joined the Order young. Retired to a peaceful life as a mercenary."

Eli snorted. "That's peaceful?"

"Anything that doesn't involved mages feels right restful after enough time in the Order. And he's not a mage. Not like you and me. He's more like Riadn and ... " He gazed at Eli, the picture of innocence. "And Lara, she's not a mage either."

"Is that what you're trying to get out of me?"

"Choir's bells," Payde muttered. "That time I figured I really was being subtle."

"She's not a mage," Eli told him. "At least not that I'll admit to you. But the Mother Glade ... well. She spreads Her canopy wide over Lara, and tucks her into the shelter of Her limbs."

Eli didn't know what that meant, if anything. But it sounded both drynish and mysterious enough to explain any usual spark-based behavior that the Shepherds happened to notice.

"Well, trees don't have the precise limbs that I prefer to seek shelter in, but--" Payde paused suddenly. "I probably shouldn't finish that thought."

Eli's spark watched Lara and Riadn dragging a broken branch of the star-elm tree closer. "So, uh, you follow the path of the Shield ...?"

"Do I look like a two-fold mage?" Payde heaved a sigh. "I've only got about six good shields in me before everything goes fuzzy."The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

"That's more than I've got."

He lofted that spark above and sent the other humming around Riadn. Never touching her, but getting a sense of her mount, her gear. Out of curiosity, and a little paranoia.

"Most of the mercenaries turned back," Lara said, after a time. "But a small force continued toward the Weep. Pursuing the children."

"Didn't they come through before them?" he asked.

"They left West Town earlier, but spent days in the hills." She gestured to the east. "Somewhere. They returned, and ambushed a bandit force at the crossroads."

Eli didn't understand the sequence of events, but didn't bother asking. As far as he was concerned, this was simple. Find the kids. Find the Bloodwitch. Find the lady.

"Most fled the bear," Riadn said, "but some remained undaunted."

"Well, they also fled the bear," Lara said, with a small smile. "But to the north."

Riadn inclined her head. "Undaunted by the Weep."

"Ah. Have you ... ever been there?"

"No. From what I've heard, mages dislike the Weep. Somewhat paradoxically. There's too much magic there."

Eli frowned. "What happens to them?"

"Nothing worse than discomfort, according to reports. Still, lost mages tend to avoid the place, which left the Order no reason to come."

"The Reach?" he asked, mimicking Lana's ignorance.

"Heaven's Reach. The highest tower of Ehrat Break, the only one that survived." Her rippling gaze flicked for the briefest moment toward them. "Ehrat Break is the old name of the city that is now the Weep."

"Ah," he said.

"The Great Warding was cast from the Reach, by the Eld and the Angel. It still stands ... at least, to a certain degree."

"Mages avoid the place?" he asked. "But the Bloodwitch lived there for decades?"

"The fact that she lived for decades at all is even more alarming," Riadn said. "If it's true."

"You doubt it?" he asked.

"No, I'm the trusting one."

Lara laughed, a warm sound in the chill afternoon.

"Tell me what you know of the witch," Riadn said, her eyes scanning the road ahead. "Of her soldiers, and of Ehrat."

As Lara spoke, the mounds of melted stone grew rarer but larger in the bramble and woods that surrounded the sheet-stone road. A breeze blew from the hills to the east, catching the scent of clover from the meadows before reaching the road. Eli's hip knit fully together and he clenched his sparks, one then the other, into hard invisible fists.

Or at least into hard invisible thumbs.

When he'd fought the brigands in the camp, he'd used the sparks like pressure points against an eye, a knee, a neck. They weren't strong enough to do real damage--yet--but they'd still given him a tremendous advantage.

By the time Lara finished recounting their tale--slightly edited--the road had started rising toward a crest. Halfway to the top, the dull thud of horseshoes against dirt changed to a brighter note. The melted cobblestones beneath them fused together, even more tightly and smoothly, into a flow of gem-hard stone.

Payde awaited them at the top, standing beside a melted stone fence upon which he'd arranged a few chunks of cheese and lengths of jerky. He greeted them with extravagant courtly politesse, but none of them listened.

None of them ever looked at him.

Because there, in the distance, was the Weep.