Illengond Page 28

  Elynna arose and tried to shake off the lingering sleepiness. The sky was faintly lighter—just light enough that she could distinguish the narrow strip of deep dark gray directly overhead from the darker black of the narrow canyon walls pressing in from either side. Whether it was the distant approach of dawn, or a thinning of the clouds, she didn’t know. She could barely make out the shapes of her companions moving around her.

  Through the darkness she heard the voices, just above a whisper, of Braga and Bandor calling out a quick roll. Braga named all his own people. Bandor named all who were not Undeani. When all were accounted for, Bandor explained their situation while Braga spoke quietly in his own tongue. “Braga, Tienna and I have done some scouting. We think we have lost our pursuers, at least for now. As most of you heard earlier, our own hero Namha chased them away—at least those on the north side of the rim. Perhaps they have also fallen for our ruse and followed our boat downriver in the dark. In any case, there is no sign of enemies on either side of the gorge. Our hope is that by the time they realize the boat was empty, and then return upriver, they will assume we escaped and will spend their time looking for us somewhere to the north of where we were.”

  “How far have we come?” Beth asked.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Bandor answered. “It was dark and we traveled slowly. I would guess at least six miles.”

  “I would judge the same as Bandor,” Tienna added. “Though because of the turns, one following along the gorge rim could perhaps reach us in five miles of travel or less.”

  “So here is where we stand, then,” Bandor said. “We have at least bought ourselves some time, but we remain in great danger. Braga, Tienna, and I all think we should keep moving through the rest of the night. We could attempt to climb out of the gorge here, but I do not savor the thought of scaling these cliffs in the dark, and we have found no easy way up. Our alternative is to continue on in the gorge until there is enough light to climb or until we find an easier path up.”

  “How?” Cathros asked. “The way forward is blocked here by the pool. The water is right up against the wall at least on our side. Little though I want to climb in the dark, I’d rather climb than swim or try to ford the river in the dark.”

  “I was coming to that,” Bandor answered. “Tienna discovered a ledge running almost all the way around the edge of this pool about three feet above the level of the water. Using Braga’s climbing pins and the remainder of the rope, we rigged a support line and a bridge across the final gap where there is no ledge. Upstream of the pool the gorge widens once more and there is easy travel along the river edge. It is waiting for us—unless we choose otherwise in which case I will retrieve the rope. Or we leave it behind.”

  Elynna thought about climbing in the dark. Between Namha’s help and the security of the rope and climbing rings, she had managed to make it up the previous cliff without complete panic. Still, she did not like the idea of climbing in the dark any more than Bandor. Yet was that her own fear and selfishness speaking? She held her tongue.

  “I trust you,” Cathros said. “And I agree that we should keep moving.”

  “So do my people,” Braga said.

  “And I as well,” Noab added.

  “Then let’s move. Grab your gear. It is only a few dozen yards to the ledge.”

  Though she knew Golach was still pursuing them, and somewhere behind her were the Daegmons and the Gaergaen, Elynna was relieved not to be facing another climb. She was wide awake now and soon ready to depart.

  They followed the edge of the river. Elynna could see the faint shimmer of the black water to her right, and felt the weight of the cliffs on her left as the gap narrowed to ten feet and then to five. The line stopped moving. Then it began again more slowly. Elynna could not see how many of her companions were ahead of her, but eventually she found herself inches from a cliff face in front of her and another body to her left. A face leaned in from the darkness. “You’ll have to reach up and grab the rope. Then feel with your feet up the wall about waist level. It’s a big step up but I’ll help you. The ledge isn’t too narrow. Just inch along. And don’t let go of the rope.”

  Elynna obeyed. With Bandor lifting her by her left arm, the step up proved easier than she expected. Soon she clenched a rope in both hands and began inching her way forward along the ledge. It was at least as wide as her feet were long. She sensed another body ahead of her, and one coming behind and kept moving. She wasn’t sure whether the darkness was a curse or a blessing, as it hid the view of the fall.

  After about fifteen minutes of this slow movement, the ledge came to an end. Elynna was feeling her way forward with her right foot and then there was nothing solid there. If she hadn’t been holding the rope, she would have fallen. The cliff face in front of her continued, however, and the rope went on at chest level. She felt again with her right foot and found another rope extending into the darkness at foot level. Grasping the rope even more tightly she ventured out. Her feet wobbled a bit and she feared she would fall. But the gap proved short. Soon she was standing on solid ground on the far side waiting for the trembling in her hands and legs to subside.

  Bandor appeared out of the darkness a few minutes later. “That’s everybody,” he said as he squeezed past Elynna. “Let’s continue on.” He disappeared again. A minute later the body in front of Elynna started forward. They continued on for another two hours without any more obstacles. The climb was steady but not steep.

  When Bandor called for a rest, the sky was lighter. Elynna could see the faces of her companions and the outlines of trees and rocks. They rested only briefly, then Braga and Bandor urged them on. They were leading the way now, and Elynna was glad not to have that responsibility. She continued with the others up the boulder-strewn path alongside the river. The climb grew slowly steeper, but not as steep as the stretch they had ascended at the start of the night. The river plunged over a series of cascading falls and pools. As they went, the sky grew ever lighter. The day was again overcast, but they had gained several hundred feet of altitude and they could feel the icy air coming off the mountain. Even with the exertion of the climb, Elynna was chilled.

  The gorge had also grown shallower and less sheer, very steep slopes rather than the cliffs that had closed them in. Elynna realized they might be in a position to scale either side if needed, though it would be a difficult scramble. She stood looking up the steep slopes. A figure appeared on the rim of the gorge to the south. It took a moment for her to register what this mean. She caught a flash of fabric. Citadel blue.

  “Golach!” Elynna cried. Another shout from behind made her jump just as a volley of arrows came down toward them from behind. She looked up to see white-garbed Undeani warriors on the rim of the gorge to the north. They were trapped once again.

  Within moments, the whole ridge on both sides was lined with enemy soldiers. And already some were beginning to descend down the steep sides.

  “Flee!” cried Bandor, leaping to his feet. “We’re beset.”

  Elynna’s companions broke into a mad scramble up the boulder-strewn path. While Bandor and Braga led the way, Aram, Tienna, Cathros, Lluach, and Namha fell to the rear of the company with weapons drawn. Tienna released an arrow at one of warriors who reached the bottom of the gorge, but he ducked behind a rock.

  Elynna was in the middle of the company, just a few steps ahead of Tienna. Bandor was fifty feet ahead. When she emerged over low ledge and looked ahead, she gasped in dismay. They had come to the end of the gorge. In front of them, three hundred yards away, was a sheer rock wall: a dead end. Bandor, however, did not slow. Men were coming down from both sides: Citadel soldiers from the south, and Undeani warriors from the north.

  And Daegmons. Almost in the same instant that Elynna saw the dead end of their path, she sensed the Daegmons’ approach. Three of them. She felt them all. Three separate minds of malice. They had once more cornered the compani
ons, and now they were closing in for the kill.

  “Bandor!” Elynna shouted in warning.

  Bandor was still running ahead. Elynna saw what he was making for. The river did not come down from above, over a falls. It poured straight out of the mountain through a wide cave—a cave just a few feet wider than the river itself. To the left of where the river poured out, a path went straight into the mountain: an escape, if they could reach it on time. And if it went anywhere.

  She looked backward. The rest of the companions had now crossed the last ledge and faced the same scene. An arrow whistled over Elynna’s head, spurring her to motion. She sprang after Bandor while Tienna and Theo turned and fired arrows back down the gorge. It was a mad dash, now. The remaining members of the company charged toward the mouth of the cave while dozens of enemy warriors poured over both sides of the gorge and began clambering down the walls in order to cut them off. Elynna glanced behind her as she ran, afraid she would be overtaken. Tienna was in the rear with Namha. She stopped and let an arrow fly. An Undeani warrior screamed as one of her darts hit his wrist. He lost his grip and tumbled down steep shale. But Tienna’s quiver was now empty. She slung her bow over her shoulder and drew her knife as she ran after Elynna.

  Ahead Bandor reached the mouth of the cave first. He stopped and motioned the others in, and then charged in himself so that he wouldn’t block the entrance. Noab, Noaem, and Anchara followed him in almost at once. Two more followed, but Elynna had paused to duck a volley of arrows and didn’t see who it was. She had only a few steps to go. Across the river, several more of Golach’s men reached the bottom. Five of them made a line of archers to cut off the path to the cave, while the rest looked for a way across the river. Trying to race past them to the cave, Nahoon stumbled as one of their arrows caught his right leg. In response Lluach turned, drew his bow, and released, dropping one of the soldiers with his own shot. But then he, too, fell as an arrow grazed his temple.

  Namha ran to the river’s edge. Three arrows flew at him at once. Turning and twisting with agility Elynna could not even follow, he dodged them all. Then, before the archers could draw again, two knives flew from his grasp, one from each hand. Two men fell clutching their chests.

  Golach’s men had battled the Amanti before. They now faced him in his wrath. The remaining archers turned and retreated beyond his range. That was all the time Elynna needed. She bolted for the mouth of the cave. Behind her, Namha turned also and yanked Nahoon and Lluach to their feet. And in that remaining instant, the last of the companions disappeared into the mountain.

  Elynna stood a few strides into the cave, staring in dismay back out the opening through which she had just come. Lluach was the last one in, stumbling across the threshold a step behind Namha who was helping the limping Nahoon. The left side of Lluach’s face was wet with blood that streamed down from a gash below his hairline, but he looked otherwise unhurt.

  “Run,” Lluach called. “The soldiers are behind us.” Then he turned to help Namha with his burden.

  Elynna needed no urging. Straight up the tunnel she fled, struggling to keep up with Braga and a long line of others who followed Bandor. She could hear the slapping footsteps of her companions who followed, and she imagined the echoes of the intermingled footsteps of pursuing soldiers. She knew without doubt that Golach would follow. Onward she ran up the slow incline of smooth stone, each step carrying her farther from the dim light of the tunnel mouth. Between her exhaustion and the growing darkness of underground, she fell several times until her palms were bloodied and her knees bruised. Still she kept picking herself up and stumbling on until she could barely see Braga in the darkness in front of her—not until she came barreling into his back and knocked them both flat did she stop.

  Braga grumbled a few incoherent expletives, then continued fumbling through his pack while others came panting up to join them. After a minute, Braga found his flint and his remaining torch. The torch had gotten wet in the river, and it took him a minute to light it, but eventually it sputtered to flame. An instant later, another torch came to light in Bandor’s hands thirty feet ahead.

  The companions looked around them. They were in a tunnel of black rock, about ten feet high and twelve wide. The walls and floor were polished smooth, whether from the labor of man or from the water of some ancient underground river, Elynna did not know. At some point farther back—Elynna hadn’t noticed when—the path had broken away from the river.

  “Are we all here?” Bandor asked.

  Elynna turned to look. She counted eighteen. Her heart fell. Namha, Aram, Kreeg and Hrevia were all missing. Fearing the worst, she called their names.

  “I thought I saw Aram enter just before me,” Cathros answered.

  “And Hrevia came in with me,” Beth added.

  “Then where are they?” Elynna wondered.

  “There is nobody ahead of me,” Bandor said. “And no other way to go—unless they swam up the river.”

  Tienna stepped forward. “They are not lost, nor are they dead. Not yet.”

  “Then where—?” Elynna started.

  Tienna’s expression was sober. “Namha remained at the entrance of the tunnel to prevent our pursuers from entering after us. I think the other three are with him. I saw him grab Aram.”

  “He can’t stay there forever,” Theo said in dismay.

  “He will stay long enough to inspire fear of this place,” Tienna replied. “We would do well to keep moving until that time.”

  The others nodded, and rose to their feet. Bandor, still holding one of the torches, led the way. “Never thought I’d feel safe—and glad—to be underground again,” he said.

  The tunnel continued into the mountain, following a straight path inward and gradually upward. It did not change in size, but the rock seemed to grow even heavier and blacker as they made their way in. They had been marching only a few minutes when they heard approaching footsteps coming at a run. Jama and Arreg drew their swords and pressed themselves against the walls while the torches moved on. Elynna followed the torches.

  A minute later, Jama and Arreg reappeared with Aram, Kreeg and Hrevia. Namha, the last of the missing company, had still not joined them.

  “What happened?” Tienna asked of Hrevia.

  “Namha was trying to divert the river—to block it up somehow so that it would rise above the level of the tunnel and prevent the enemy from entering—but we couldn’t find enough rocks. The tunnel is too smooth. He gave up and motioned for us to leave.”

  “So what will he do now?”

  Hrevia shook her head. “I do not know. Perhaps he will do what the Amanti did at the edge of the Plains when we escaped into Undeani land. He will stand guard and prevent any from following.”

  Tienna nodded grimly. “The tunnel mouth is small. They cannot attack him more than one or two at a time. More importantly, the Daegmon cannot get to him there. They will not pass.”

  “But what about the Gaergaen?” Elynna said. “He has come also. And not even the Amanti can face that power.”

  “You are right,” Tienna said. “But if that is his sacrifice, it is freely chosen. Let it not be in vain.”

  31

  THE HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN

  The companions started up the tunnel again. Elynna’s thoughts were a jumbled mess. She thought of all their narrow escapes of the past few days, all the companions she had lost, and now of Namha once more risking himself so that she could continue. She thought of Golach’s relentless pursuit. And she thought most of all of the hopelessness of trying to fight the Daegmons. How would this all come to a close? She could see no happy way for her story to end. They had no more food. They had nowhere to go. How would they find Thimeon now? And even if they found him, what then?

  They continued on up the tunnel. Elynna trudged on with the others a few steps behind Bandor who now held the torch and led them. Her companions spoke little.
Fortunately, a few of them had filled their water skins before the attack. They shared the water as they walked. She knew it would not last forever.

  After a time, the tunnel leveled out. Elynna thought she caught a scent of fresher air coming down from above on a slight breeze, and she wondered if they were coming out of the mountain again. As she wondered this, she heard distant rumbling and felt a slight trembling of the ground beneath her. Bandor stopped walking and glanced nervously around. Elynna met his gaze, but they spoke no words. Just as Elynna wondered whether the mountain would collapse and crush them all, the rumbling subsided. Bandor continued on, and Elynna followed him, though she no longer felt she had any place to go.

  About half an hour after the rumbling, Elynna heard voices stirring behind her. She turned to look. A tall figure appeared by the second torch. Her heart leapt when she realized it was Namha. He made his way past the others. As he approached, Elynna saw he carried a huge bundle of arrows under his arm. Nahoon came with him.

  Namha spoke briefly to Nahoon, who translated to the others. “We can stop and rest. The soldiers will not follow.”

  Several questions rang out, but Nahoon silenced them all with a gesture. “Just wait. Just wait. He hasn’t said anything yet, and even if he had I couldn’t answer all your questions at once.” He turned to Namha and spoke to him in their tongue. Namha was slow in answering. He had a strange gleam in his eyes—an eagerness or excitement Elynna had rarely seen in the stoic Amanti. When he told his story, Nahoon’s own eyes opened wide, and Tienna whistled.

  “What is it?” the others pressed. “How is it that we will not be followed?”

  Nahoon shook his head once more in awe or surprise, and then translated Namha’s tale. “Our Amanti friend did not have to fight long. The impatient Golach sent his soldiers after us, but they could only come at him two at a time. Even in pairs they were no match for the Amanti skill. After several of them perished, Golach called the rest of them back. Next he had his archers loose a barrage of arrows into the tunnel mouth. Namha stepped easily backward out of the way, and collected the arrows.” He gestured to the stack of arrows that the Amanti had set on the ground and smiled. “We are now once again armed.”