A rock shifted under Aramal’s grasp.Halithe heard him curse as he floated away from the cliff-face.She gripped on tight, turning carefully to look.
The stone he had dislodged was rolling down, striking the path below and falling further down the mountainside.
Aramal’s face contorted as he hung in mid-air, then started to sink.
“Careful,” Ritathan said, reeling him back in with the rope.
Halithe took the opportunity to take a breath, and then, with a glance at the others, activated her mage sight.There was a shimmer around the two of them, like a soap bubble.
Ritathan pulled Aramal closer the wall, letting him get a fresh grip before dropping the rope.He glanced at her and winked.
Halithe grinned and looked up.It was still there, to her wonder, the golden-red soul-bond cord, thin and stretched tight.
“Careful,” Ritathan said again, and this time a glance showed he was talking to her.Aramal was back on the rock-face, breathing hard, but her master was staring at her.“Don’t push it,” Ritathan said.
His warning was about more than just the climbing.She nodded her understanding, looked up at the cord and then back at him.
Ritathan gave her a nod; he’d seen it as well, then.“Hopefully we’ll have answers soon.”
Halithe released her mage sight.It wouldn’t do to lose control here.
“We must be close to the top,” Aramal said as he reached up for another handhold.
Halithe moved as well, but her mind was on the bond-cord she’d seen above their heads.It looked the same as the ones wrapped around Caris and the other Bondmaidens, but thinner, tighter somehow, as if strained.But how could that be?
From the look on Ritathan’s face, he didn’t have any answers either.
A bark from above.They all climbed up onto a switch-back and stopped to breath.
“This is the last,” Aramal said.“Bright Fang’s at the top.”
“Let’s get some answers,” Ritathan said, and they all scrambled to see what there was to see.
Halithe got there first, climbing up over the edge, to see…more rocks.
A flat area extended before her, cut through the top if the hill.Rocks, sand, a few stringy branches, just sticks poking from the earth.
The rocky path was wider here, as if the wind had cut a channel through a boulder.It seemed strangely straight for something natural.Just a few yards beyond was what had to be the start of the path down to the Wastes.
Bright Fang sat next to her, his ears flat.
Ritathan and Aramal joined her.
“Nothing,” Aramal said, his disappointment clear.
“Not nothing,” Ritathan said.“Not to mage sight.”
Halithe called up her gift again and opened her eyes.
The bond-cord was there, running straight down the path.Shockingly, it ended, as if sheared off, just before the opposite edge.
“What do you see?”Aramal demanded.
“Where magic ends,” Ritathan said.“Bright Fang, don’t get any closer to that edge.No telling what it would do to you.”
Halithe took another step, trying to see if the cord truly ended so abruptly.Something crunched under her foot.She looked down, frowning.“Are those…pease?”She knelt, picking up the dried beans.
Ritathan didn’t respond.He had his eyes closed, his hand out.“There,” he said.“My key is there.”He sounded confused and upset as he started to one side of the path, kneeling and digging.
