Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

"Who is that?" Nestor stared at Alizadeh and held his blanket close as if he'd been found naked. "How did he find us?"

"It's all right, Nestor. He's my teacher." Javier stepped closer to Alizadeh and held up his hand in a Bahiim gesture of welcome that Alizadeh returned.

The shadow curse is hunting you and you are too far from the Circle of Red Oaks for me to hide your presence any longer. Alizadeh's voice carried over them like a whispering breeze.

Still lying in his saddle blanket, Elezar opened his eyes but didn't seem to see Kiram, much less Alizadeh. He closed his eyes again and didn't respond as Kiram shook him harder.

Ride the Old Road, Alizadeh told Javier. The blessed willows will know the shajdi's light and protect your path to the foot of Zancoda. Butyou must be fast. Death is already among you.

Alizadeh suddenly turned his head, and again Kiram caught the flash of crow's feathers and sharp beaks. Alizadeh looked straight at Elezar.

As if pulled by an invisible force Elezar's eyes opened and he lifted his head to face Alizadeh.

If you throw away your life, boy, then I will lay claim to it. Your strength is needed now. Rise and live!

Alizadeh shuddered and then his body broke apart as if it were no more than a play of light upon the elm leaves. Hundreds of black crows rose from the surrounding trees. They circled and then plunged down upon Elezar. Kiram fell back as a powerful wind pushed him aside. Nestor cried out in horror and stumbled to his feet. Only Javier remained still and calm.

The crows struck Elezar like shadows, falling across his body without leaving a mark. Yet with each impact Elezar gasped in a breath and shook. Color rose in his cheeks and light shone in his gaze. Then the crows were gone and the entire forest seemed strangely quiet.

Elezar sat up, breathing fast, his face sweating and flushed.

"You should have told me you were injured!" Javier frowned at Elezar.

"You had enough to worry about." Elezar looked away.

"Your death wouldn't exactly take a load off my mind, Elezar," Javier snapped.

Elezar's jaw worked and he sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."

Kiram supposed that was the best any of them could hope for but Nestor looked deeply hurt. Despite Elezar's embarrassed expression Nestor threw his arms around his older brother, hugging him and then bursting into tears.

"Nestor." Elezar's face flushed deeper red but his voice went soft. "Nestor, I won't do it again, all right. I promise. I'm fine. Nestor, you have to let me get up."

Nestor drew back and wiped his face with his dirty shirtsleeve. "You better not die."

"Same goes for you," Elezar returned. Kiram didn't think he'd ever seen Elezar look so touched or so self-conscious all at once.

"All right. Now that we're all agreed that staying alive is the course we want to follow," Javier interrupted, "we need to get moving. There is something worse than the bishop's men after us now. If it catches us I'm not sure that any of us will survive."

"What do you mean?" Elezar asked. "What is it?"

"The Tornesal curse." Javier rolled up his saddle blanket and quickly buckled his sword belt around his waist. He didn't offer any further explanation but both Nestor and Elezar seemed to catch his urgency.

They gathered their gear and saddled the horses. Kiram's mouth tasted like dirt and his hair was full of fallen leaves and moss. His body ached and the morning cold numbed his fingers. But despite clumsy discomfort, the memory of the shadow curse hunting him sped his movements.

"The Tornesal curse?" Nestor fumbled with his stirrup and then climbed into his saddle.

Javier gave him a curt nod but his attention was on the surrounding trees. He stroked Lunaluz's neck absently.

"It's taken possession of Fedeles and we have to get to the academy if we're going to stop it and save him," Kiram explained.

"And that man just now, was he a ghost? Or some kind of forest spirit?" Nestor asked. "What does he teach you?"

Javier sprang up into his saddle. "He's a Bahiim, a Haldiim holy man. He's been training me since I converted."

Nestor gaped at Javier. "You converted?"

"I knew something was going on," Elezar grumbled. "You never used to hang around in trees day and night."

Kiram silently mounted his own horse.

"So, it was Bahiim magic that saved Elezar just now, wasn't it?" Nestor asked.

Javier nodded and whatever gripe Elezar might have voiced against Javier's conversion went unspoken.

"Can you do that?" Nestor asked Javier. "I mean, turn into birds or bring someone back to life?"

"No." Javier shook his head. "Magic like that takes years of practice and requires a kind of self control that I haven't mastered."

"But Kiram's been part of the Haldiim religion all his life. I bet he knows all kinds of magic." Nestor looked excited and Kiram realized that Nestor was as delighted by Bahiim magic as he'd been with the idea of Mirogoths who could transform themselves into wolves.

"No such luck," Kiram informed Nestor. "I know less about it than Javier does."

A cold chill passed over them and suddenly the entire forest around them seemed darker. Elezar sat up straight in his saddle and Nestor gasped. Birds flew from the surrounding trees. Wild hares and squirrels fled as if racing to escape a fire.

"What was that?" Elezar demanded.

"The shadow curse. We don't have time to talk. We have to find the Old Road. Now." Javier urged Lunaluz ahead.

They followed Javier through the forest as he searched among stands of gnarled trees and around moss covered outcroppings of stone. Kiram had no idea what Javier was looking for and apparently Javier didn't either. When Nestor asked, Javier simply told him that he'd know when he found it.

The shadows around them deepened and every twig that cracked beneath the horses' hooves echoed through the eerie quiet of the seemingly empty forest. Kiram tried to ignore the sharp cramps cutting into his belly, but when Nestor groaned and gripped his gut, Kiram realized that he wasn't the only one feeling the shadow curse's presence. Even the horses seemed agitated and uncomfortable. Kiram murmured soothing words to his mount while Javier turned Lunaluz back and forth through the forest.

Then at the edge of a stream, Javier stopped his restless search. Two huge willows stood on either side of the mossy stream bank.

"Here." Javier urged Lunaluz down into the shallow waters. "Come quickly and stay close to me."

The huge willows bowed over the stream, their long branches dangling into the waters and obscuring the view ahead.

Javier whispered words that Kiram only half understood: the names of ancient deities and invocations of arcane guardians. An eerie cool wind whipped through the willow branches. They swayed and trembled like anxious fingers. Javier raised his arms and flexed his hands as if he were wrenching some invisible cord asunder. As Javier jerked his arms apart, a loud crack sounded and the ground trembled. All the horses except Lunaluz pranced nervously. Kiram soothed Verano as best he could.

"This path is mine to take. I will not be barred from it!" Javier shouted. His tone alone was enough to make Nestor startle. Elezar scanned the surrounding woods as if expecting an attack.

White flames gushed from Javier's hands and leaped into the branches of the willow trees. But like the trees in the Circle of Red Oaks they did not burn but instead lit up like stained glass in sunlight. A second shudder passed through the ground beneath them and the waters flowing over the stream bed parted to reveal a path of white stones etched with Bahiim symbols.

Overhead the willow branches curled back like gleaming glass curtains, revealing a delicate white archway and the flat darkness within it. Kiram knew that there should be more of the streambed on the other side, not this deep blackness.