Fear gnaws my gut. I want to go for my own sword, but keep my hands firmly on the pommel of my saddle. Diira’s great strength shifts beneath me, and I trust her to carry me to safety should need arise.
The Noxaurians draw closer. A foul stench accompanies them—they stink of a distillery. Their movements are thoseof inebriated men, all sluggish and liquid. What kind of strong drink is potent enough to intoxicate the fae?
The foremost of their number launches into a barrage of verbal abuse. I don’t understand the language, but his gestures and tone are clear enough. Taar takes each insult with stoic disinterest, and when the fae man pauses at last for breath, he speaks in a stern voice and drives Elydark forward three aggressive paces. A flicker of fire erupts along the red licorneir’s shoulders, and the reptants shy back, growling and shaking their reptilian heads.
Then, to my horror, one of the riders pulls out a vial of black liquid. He bites the head off, and the stench of virulium assaults my nostrils moments before he shoots the liquid down his throat.
“Halamar!” Taar shouts, whipping his sword from its sheath. “Take Ilsevel back to camp,now.”
“No!” I cry, going for my own blade, but the word has scarcely left my mouth before the reptant rider, gouts of black spewing from his sagging jaw, springs slavering from his saddle, straight at Taar. Taar gets his weapon up in defense, but the momentum of the attack knocks him clean out of the saddle. A flurry of confusion follows. Elydark roars, drowning out my own terrified scream. Diira rears up on her hind quarters as another virulium-maddened Noxaurian launches at us from the side. Halamar’s blade flashes, and the Noxaurian’s head rolls off its shoulders, and its body tumbles beneath Diira’s hooves.
“Ilsevel,go!”Taar’s voice bellows from somewhereon the ground.
I don’t want to leave him. I won’t.
But Diira has other ideas.
Bursting into flame, my licorneir springs out from the tangle of reptants and virulium-maddened riders. She takes off through the camp with me clinging to her back shouting, “No, no, no! Go back! Go back,please!”I feel the strainingvelra, know it will make him vulnerable just now when he needs his strength.
But Diira’s song rolls back to me, hot as her fire and utterly determined:I will get you to safety, Vellara.
The encampment surrounds us, monsters everywhere we turn. I want to dive off my mount’s back and run on foot to my husband’s aid, but I dare not, not here. Diira pivots, puts on a burst of speed, dodging between campfires and leaping shadows. Then, abruptly, she bursts out into empty darkness, the no-man’s land between the Noxaurian and Licornyn camps.
Here at last she slows, allowing me to sit tall in the saddle and look back the way we’ve come. I see no sign of Taar or Halamar, but thevelra, strained taut, vibrates with energy, and I know Taar lives on the other end of it. “Gods-damn!” I snarl even as my mind sings to Diira,We have to go back!
No,she replies.I won’t put you in danger. I must protect you. I will protect you.
Damn it, Diira!
The sound of hoofbeats draws my attention abruptly to my right. I cannot see in this overcast darkness, but I can feel the soul-song of a licorneir approaching. “Help!” I call. “Help us, please!”
The licorneir draws nearer until the light flickering off Diira’s body illuminates its golden hide and the face of its rider. Kildorath—his face severe and forbidding, smeared with warpaint, but still a welcome sight compared to the monsters I’ve just fled.
“Kildorath!” I cry. “Taar—the Noxaurians—They’ve taken virulium—” I can’t seem to find words to make sense of anything I want to say. My heart gallops in my breast, and all I know is that Taar needs help, now, and Kildorath is the only one here.
Kildorath turns toward the Noxaur encampment, where the sounds of battle fill the night air. Then he looks at me again, a long, considering gaze. When he speaks at last, it’s with careful precision in my own tongue, which I don’t remember hearing him use before. “It is not safe for you out here, lady.”
I suppose we agree on something. “Taar—” I begin.
“Myluinarwould want me to escort you to safety.” He turns his licorneir’s head about, aiming into the darkness, away from the Noxaurians. “Come, follow me.”
I want to scream, to shout, to grab this man by the hair andmakehim get back there to help Taar and Halamar. The two of them are so painfully outnumbered, and who knows how many more monsters joined the brawl just for the fun of it? And these are meant to be our allies. “Please, Kildorath!” I protest.
But he rides on without looking back, and Diira falls into place behind the golden licorneir without question. I’m sorely temptedto reach out with my gods-gift, find out whether I can compel that other beast’s obedience as I have with others of his kind before. Could I make him carry his rider back to Taar? Something tells me that to attempt it would be a terrible mistake. Kildorath has been itching all along for an excuse to get rid of me; if I wrested control over his licorneir from him, he would no doubt argue that this offense was punishable by death.
Cursing every single saint and star I can think of, I twist in the saddle again and again, trying to look back into the encampment. Terrible howls rend the night, and I can’t tell if it’s the virulium-crazed fae or more of those hideous hobgoblins. It’s all one nightmarish racket to my ears.
I realize suddenly that Kildorath is not leading us in the direction of the Licornyn encampment. It’s difficult for me to see what is happening out here in the open plains, under that overcast sky. Surely we should be among the smalldakathsby now. Just as the thought occurs to me, a break in the clouds reveals a sliver of moonlight, and by its glow, I take in the world around me. We are far out beyond both encampments, out in the empty country between our forces and the ruins of Evisar City. What in the name of all the gods are we doing out here?
Diira, responding to my shock, pulls up short.What’s happening, Diira?I sing to her.Why did he bring us here?
Miramenor bade me follow him,Diira replies. Her ears twitch back toward me.We are safe.He is our friend.
I sense her conviction, but I am unconvinced.Stop,I tell her, then sitting up taller in the saddle, shout to Kildorath, “Where are you taking me?”
In answer Kildorath bows low over his licorneir, who puts on a sudden burst of speed, galloping ahead of me into the darkness and beyond my range of sight. My stomach drops. “What . . . ?” I whisper.
The world around me erupts in screams. Strange, ululating wails, animalistic and hungry.
