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  “But what happened next?” several impatient voices called out.

  “Namha thinks Golach intended to try to keep him pinned with his archers while he sent another assault. It wouldn’t have worked, however. As soon as his men entered the tunnel mouth, the archers would have to stop shooting for fear of hitting their own men. Then Namha had only to step out again and fight. But the plan was never attempted. About then, Namha felt the dark power arriving.”

  “Do you mean the Daegmons?” Elynna asked.

  “No. He did not fear them, for they are too large to get inside the tunnel.”

  “The Gaergaen,” Cathros said.

  “Yes,” Nahoon answered. “As we had feared. Even Namha was afraid when he sensed this enemy coming, for he had faced that power before and knew it was too great. Yet he held his ground and prepared for whatever onslaught would come in order to buy us time.”

  Nahoon paused. His expression was grim. “That was when it happened: the rumbling that we felt a short while ago. I know now what it was. The Gaergaen approached and took a position down below, several dozen yards away. He raised his staff as he had done before when he threw the fire at us from a distance. And at the raising of his staff, the ground began to tremble, and the trembling grew to a rumbling, which became more violent with each second. Namha was thrown hard to the ground. Stones fell from the roof above him, just missing him. He lifted his head and looked back down the tunnel. Then he saw that the river had begun to rise of its own accord. Already the water was rushing across his feet. And so swift was the rising that he was almost swept away. Just in time, he turned and ran back up the tunnel, pausing only to grab the arrows he had collected earlier.

  “Fifty yards up the tunnel, he turned and looked back. Not only was the entire entrance blocked by the water, but huge boulders swept down and hung up just inside the tunnel. Water starting filling the tunnel.”

  “Did the Gaergaen do all this?” Braga asked.

  “If he did, he may have defeated himself,” Cathros answered. “We tried to dam up the river ourselves and failed.”

  Nahoon shook his head. “At first Namha thought it was the assault of the Gaergaen. But he could feel no evil in it. Also, the instant before he retreated up the tunnel, he caught a glimpse out through the tunnel mouth. The enemy was fleeing.”

  “Then what does it mean?” Beth asked.

  “It would seem some other power was at work,” Tienna answered.

  Nahoon nodded, then continued. “In any case, even if the water now recedes to its earlier level, the tunnel mouth is blocked enough by those boulders that the water is up and over the tunnel. The passage is sealed. We cannot go out the way we came in, but neither can we be pursued.”

  A wave of relief swept over Elynna. Another power? What other power?

  Several voices broke out at once. For a number of minutes, they talked about what it all might mean. Nobody knew. Eventually, at Bandor’s suggestion, they decided to move on. “We have been spared for a time, but we don’t know for how long. Between Golach and the Gaergaen, they may find a way to get past,” he said.

  After that, however, they traveled at a slower pace. They marched another hour, then paused for rest. They finished the last of their water. Then they continued on.

  They had been inside the mountain for a little over three hours when they came to a sudden end of the tunnel and found themselves in a wide cavern, several hundred feet across. It was not so great as the underground lake they had passed days earlier under a different mountain, but it was wide enough that not even the strongest of them could have shot an arrow across its diameter. The walls of the cavern were of the same black rock, but scattered around them were a myriad of sparkling gems and crystalline structures. The place glittered with reflected light. The wall gathered up the small bit of torchlight they had brought with them, and threw it back upon them like a giant chandelier. The middle of the cave sank down like a deep bowl, smooth and surprisingly uniform.

  Several of the companions opened their mouths in amazement as they piled in and stood gaping at the sight.

  “Where is this place?” Elynna wondered.

  “Look at these jewels,” said Hrevia. Her eyes sparkled for the first time since her brother’s death.

  “Are they valuable?” Falien asked.

  “It would make an Anghare merchant rich,” Aram answered under his breath.

  “Only if we could get the gems out of here,” Beth said. “Don’t forget. We’re trapped under this mountain, lost, with no food and now no water. And even if we get out, an enemy army awaits.”

  “That’s a cheery thought,” Theo said, but despite his sarcasm his voice was strangely unperturbed, as though he weren’t the least bothered by Beth’s words, however un-cheery they were.

  Elynna felt the same way. She knew Beth spoke the truth, yet for the first time in many days her heart was not weighed down by the grim realities her waking mind had faced. There was something solemn and weighty about the place. It had a sense of permanence that made the problems they had left outside seem inconsequential. It wasn’t a light-heartedness—the sort of lack of concern about others’ problems Elynna sometimes saw in the most uncaring people. It was in some ways the opposite.

  There was a time, many months ago, when she had first gone to Citadel looking for answers. Her relationship with her brother Lyn had deteriorated. Her petition to the king had fallen on deaf ears. In despair, Elynna had taken to the taverns and sought consolation in strong drink. Neither before nor since that two-week period had Elynna ever succumbed to the allure of strong wine or ale. But for those few days she got drunk almost daily. She now found herself feeling almost the same as when she had been drunk. Or, again, perhaps exactly the opposite she thought. The relief she now felt was the relief of intense clarity rather than forgetfulness.

  That, at least, was how Elynna explained her feelings to Tienna.

  “My health sense is meaningless here,” Tienna replied. “All my senses are meaningless. I feel deep down that this is a place of perfect health, but it’s so much deeper and more perfect that I’m insufficient even to judge that.”

  After the few initial exclamations, everybody was quiet for a time as they stood taking in the surroundings. Bandor broke the silence. “We should rest here. We need rest.”

  “Can we?” Beth asked. “I mean, do we have time? And what about food? And water?”

  “The Daegmons, the Gaergaen, and Golach’s army are good enough reasons for me to rest,” Bandor replied. “Why rush to find a way out, when we know they are all out there waiting for us? As for water, based on what we’ve seen so far that shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll find a spring soon enough. We can go back for it if we need to. Though food may be something else.”

  At the mention of food, Bandor’s voice trailed off and Elynna’s stomach began to growl. She couldn’t remember when she had last eaten. She also couldn’t remember her last night of sleep. She’d had no more than an hour or two of rest at a time for days it seemed.

  She was glad nobody argued with Bandor’s plan. After their sleepless night and endless hours of travel, all the companions looked ready for a rest. Fortunately, the Undeani along with Noab and Noaem still had their packs. They removed their skins and sleeping rolls to share. Somebody extinguished one of the torches. Elynna wrapped up in a blanket next to Beth. She shut her eyes and dozed off almost immediately.

  32

  AN UNEXPECTED REUNION

  Sleep was deep and dreamless. It seemed to Elynna that she had only just put her head down when she heard Theo urgently waking everybody. She opened her eyes to see him standing a short distance away holding a torch and shaking Cathros. “Wake up!”

  “What is it?” Aram asked in a grumpy voice from next to Cathros.

  Theo’s words came fast and nearly breathlessly. “Somebody is coming. From a tunnel on the far side.”


  Cathros sat up quickly. “How do you know? Where did you see them?”

  “I was exploring the cave for a possibly exit. I found the tunnel. I thought I would explore it at least a short distance. I had gone maybe half a mile when I heard footsteps and voices. I turned and came back as quickly as I could. Whoever it is, they’re coming this way!”

  Cathros was on his feet in a second, standing next to Theo. Before Elynna could rise, Bandor, Tienna and Braga also went to his side. They all began asking questions, but Theo had already told them all he knew.

  “We should retreat back down the tunnel,” Braga suggested.

  “No,” Tienna said at once. “There is no exit that way. We’d be trapped in a dead end.”

  “Well if we can’t escape,” Braga said, “We’ll have to fight.”

  “And if we must fight,” Cathros added, “Let’s make sure surprise is on our side.”

  Within seconds they had gathered their gear and were moving around the perimeter of the cavern’s bowl toward the tunnel on the far side. They left the one torch burning near where they had entered, to give some light to their movement and also as a decoy. By the time they reached the far side, Elynna could hear footsteps and voices echoing down the tunnel. Quietly they drew their weapons, and though they knew not what enemy awaited them, or how strong, they prepared to attack.

  The footsteps grew louder. A torch emerged from the tunnel followed by an arm holding a torch and a man to whom the arm belonged. Vague recognition flashed across Elynna’s mind. Why was the face familiar?

  A second figure emerged through the tunnel only half a step behind him. Elynna recognized the second figure first. The name rushed to her lips in joy and surprise. Thimeon! And with that recognition she made an immediate connection to the first. Dhan? How on earth—?

  She had no time to ponder that question. Before the second figure had even fully emerged, Braga had sprung out with an Undeani war-cry.

  “Wait,” Elynna yelled.

  At the same moment Tienna yelled “No!” right beside her.

  Both were an instant too late. Aram and Cathros sprang from the other side. Elynna’s cry of surprise became a cry of terror as Aram’s sword swung straight toward the prince’s head.

  Dhan’s quick reflexes—and perhaps Elynna’s shout—saved him from Aram’s sword as the blow swept mere inches past his ducking ear. Thimeon did not prove as lucky. Braga’s wooden bow crashed down on Thimeon’s head. He crumbled to the ground in a heap.

  “No!” Elynna shouted again. Her voice was lost in a melee as several more figures—faces she did not recognize—rushed out from the tunnel. Her Undeani companions set upon them at once with battle axes.

  Elynna had no time to wonder who the strangers were. If they had come with Thimeon, they must be friends. Unarmed, and afraid for her friends, she rushed into the fray toward where Thimeon lay unconscious on the ground.

  For a moment, all hung by a thread. Bandor, who was nearest the prince, found himself in a ferocious fight with one of the strangers, and it went ill for the overmatched Andani. Five steps away, Braga squared off with a scarred and gray-haired soldier, and two of the Undeani were taking on a big muscular man. A woman battled Hrevia, petite but flashing a sword as though she knew how to use it. The Northlander’s greater strength for the moment made up for her lesser skill.

  Tienna was yelling too. “No! Don’t fight!” Elynna saw her dive into the melee in a desperate attempt to stop the fighting before there was bloodshed.

  Yet to the other company she was just another attacker: an enemy to be dispatched. She would never survive, Elynna thought. One of their blades flashed toward her bare neck. At the same moment, the prince, rolling away from Aram’s blow, came up sword in hand and ready to fight. Facing him was the unfamiliar visage of the Ceadani elder Noab. Dhan raised his blade and prepared to put an end to him. And in that instant, his eyes met Elynna’s. “Stop,” she yelled as loudly and desperately as she could.

  Elynna saw Dhan hesitate. Saw the recognition in his eyes. Noab, taking advantage of the moment of hesitation, swung his blade. Dhan parried it easily but did not return the blow. To Elynna’s side, Aram raised his blade to strike somebody else. Elynna threw herself at him and knocked him down.

  “Elynna?” the prince’s voice boomed out. And then a moment later, “Hold! Back off!”

  At the mention of Elynna’s name from the mouth of his opponent, Noab also backed off, though he kept his blade on guard.

  Out of the corner of her eye Elynna saw another movement. Another woman rushed out of the tunnel with a knife in one hand and a sword in the other. Elynna recognized her too. Siyen? The name came to Elynna’s tongue, as she watched her former companion charge into battle. “Siyen!” Elynna called aloud. But Siyen came face to face with Theo and stopped short on her own.

  Soon Theo, Siyen, and Dhan had all joined the efforts of Elynna and Tienna to halt the battle. Nonetheless, several more seconds passed before the fighting was stopped and all weapons lowered, and members of both companions stood starting at one other in confusion, breathing hard. A few glared angrily or uneasily at their recent opponents.

  Elynna spun around looking for Thimeon. She’d been trying to reach him before, but the brief battle had born her several steps away. She spotted his body on the rock floor of the cave, unmoving. Tienna already knelt at his side. Everybody else froze and watched.

  Elynna knew what Tienna was doing: using her health sense to probe Thimeon’s body for injury. Would she be able to use her gift to heal him also? Or was she too late? All was silent now save for the hard breathing coming from all sides. Elynna weaved her way toward where Tienna sat at Thimeon’s side, afraid of what she would find.

  She had just reached her destination when more figures emerged from the tunnel. Her eyes lifted from Thimeon in a momentary glance. The glance turned to surprise. Cathwain? Yes. It was the young Ceadani woman from Gale Enebe. The one who had spoken to Elynna’s mind. Elynna had no time even to formulate questions about how Cathwain had come there. Or Thimeon. Or the prince or any of them. Cathwain was followed by another man, young, and Ceadani by his attire. Then came at third, shy-looking and young, yet even at a quick glance one of the most beautiful women Elynna had ever seen.

  And then, last of all, came another familiar face—a face Elynna was even more surprised to see than Thimeon’s or Dhan’s.

  A moment of stunned silence came over Elynna and she forgot about Thimeon. Her jaw dropped and a memory flooded over her of their last bitter parting. His name came to her lips like the name of a stranger. She spoke it in a whisper, as if it were a spell she was afraid to invoke. “Lyn?”

  And with the speaking of his name, came the questions. Where had he come from and what was he doing? Had he come all that way just to blame her once more? Or had he come to forgive her? Or to ask her forgiveness?

  Lyn also stopped cold in the face of his sister’s gaze. His face turned pale and his eyes grew wide. There was a long, dreadful, pause—a pause during which nobody else mattered. All around them voices were begin to speak. Greetings. Questions. Exclamations of surprise. Elynna was barely aware. In all the world it was only the two of them. She was trembling. With rage, or sorrow, or fear, she did not know.

  Lyn lowered his eyes to the stone floor. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Elynna stared at him for a long moment, then rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. He stood frozen for several seconds, then slowly his own burly arms came up around her.

  33

  A DIFFERENT HOPE

  Thimeon awoke several minutes later at the touch of a cool hand upon his forehead. He opened his eyes to see Tienna’s beautiful face with her high proud cheeks leaning down over him, her breasts brushing lightly against his. He thought he was dreaming. When she kissed him, he was sure he was dreaming. But when he tried to sit up, he felt the poundin
g of a thousand small hammers inside his head. The sweetness of the dream faded. His head fell back and he closed his eyes with a groan.

  “You’re alive,” Tienna said softly.

  Before Thimeon could answer, he felt again the touch of her hand on his head. He let his body relax and sink into the coolness of her touch. He felt a strange tingling, like the rush of blood back into an arm or leg that had fallen asleep, except the sensation was in his skull. It was not painful but neither was it altogether pleasant. In any case, it didn’t last more than a few seconds. Then, quite suddenly, the pain was gone. The hammers ceased to pound. He sat up and looked at Tienna. She was pale, and her eyes were closed, but she was smiling, and he knew what she had done. “You didn’t have to,” he said. “But thank you.”

  Tienna nodded and her smile grew a little, but still she sat in silence, eyes closed, breathing slowly. Thimeon sat watching her a few moments until the color returned to her cheeks and she opened her eyes. He rose and helped her to her feet. He did not let go of her hand right away, nor did she seek to escape his grasp. He looked around. He stood at the edge of a vast bowl-shaped cavern. A half dozen torches burned on the near side. Though the walls shone black, they were full of sparkling stones reflecting the torchlight in a myriad colors. This made the cavern as light as a morning outdoors in the hour following dawn, or as the main hall of his farmhouse when a fire was roaring in the fireplace and all the lanterns were lit.

  Familiar faces crowded around the near side of the cavern: members of his former company and his current company now meeting one another. A few old acquaintances were already in close conversation. Siyen was in a small circle with the Northlanders Aram and Cathros. Cathwain and Gaelim were talking with Noab, Noaem, and Anchara. He saw Elynna and Lyn sitting together against a wall, talking quietly with serious expressions. When he glanced their way several of his companions—both old and new—smiled back at him, acknowledging their gladness at his recovery.