Roger Taylor - The Return of the Sword

Gavor did not speak, but shifted his weight uneasily.

‘Alphraan, do you hear me?’ Hawklan said.

There was no reply.

‘Not that I’m normally inclined to think about such things, but I’d have imagined a bolder end for myself than this,’ Gavor said laconically.

‘Yes,’ Hawklan said. Gavor had been his companion since his mysterious arrival in Orthlund and it was more consolation than he cared to voice to have him still there.

Then, out of the darkness, came a sound.

Yatsu and Dacu crawled to Olvric’s side. He made no sound, but an inclination of his head drew them to a rock from the side of which they could look along the plain between the mountains without being seen. It took both of them a little time to adjust to the eerie perspective that the unchanging blueness brought to the plain, but gradually they made out the approaching riders.

As they watched, there was a brief flicker of light, thin and vertical, on another part of the plain.

‘What was that?’ Yatsu whispered.

‘I don’t know,’ Olvric replied. ‘I’ve seen a few of them, in different places. They’re never there long enough to look at properly and there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to them. If they’re signal lights they’re like none I’ve ever seen. Just a single flash, then gone.’

‘There’s another,’ Dacu hissed, instinctively ducking back behind the rock.

‘Never mind,’ Yatsu said. ‘We’ve enough to worry about without fretting over mysterious lights. How long before those three get here?’

‘Impossible to say,’ Dacu replied, squinting at the riders. ‘There’s nothing to gauge anything by.’

Yatsu scowled. ‘If they’re who we think they are, we can’t possibly fight them. We’ll have to hide – buy some time to find out more about this place.’ No one argued. ‘Keep watching,’ he said to Olvric and Yengar.

He broke the news to the others bluntly. ‘We’ll have to assume they’re the Uhriel. That means the only thing we can do is hide and hope they pass by.’

‘They came straight to Vredech and me when we were here,’ Pinnatte said. ‘It was almost as if the mountains were telling them where we were.’

‘That’s a comfort,’ Marna said caustically, but Yatsu motioned her to be quiet.

‘It’s relevant,’ he said. ‘Everything that happened to him is relevant.’ He looked around. ‘Maybe if this area hasn’t been changed yet they won’t be able to do that.’

‘We could ambush them,’ Marna suggested. ‘Gentren injured one of them.’

Yatsu shook his head. ‘Maybe, if we’d absolutely no other alternative, but until then we hide.’ He did not totally dismiss the idea, however.

‘Did you see any trees nearby?’ he asked Yrain.

‘There’s woodland within an hour’s walk.’ Gentren said, before she could answer. ‘But I don’t know what state it’s in.’

‘Good. If we can, that’s where we’ll go afterwards. There’ll be better shelter there, and more chance of finding food and something to drink. We can also make some bows and spears just in case we do have to ambush them. Not to mention a few snares.’

Yengar was with them again, his eyes wide.

‘One of them’s disappeared,’ he said. Yatsu made him repeat the news.

‘Just vanished into one of those lights,’ Yengar amplified. ‘One moment he was there, then he was gone.’ He snapped his fingers softly.

Yatsu looked at Pinnatte who shrugged.

‘None of them vanished when we were here, more’s the pity,’ he said sourly.

‘What about the others?’ Yatsu asked Yengar after a brief and bewildered pause.

‘They just carried on. We heard a faint shrieking noise like Vredech told us about.’ He grimaced. ‘It’s not a nice sound, even at a distance, but I suppose it confirms who they are.’

‘One down, two to go,’ Yrain said.

‘No, it’s eleven to go unless we keep our wits about us,’ Yatsu retorted curtly. ‘Don’t forget, none of us would have dreamt of attacking one of the old Uhriel and if the Memsa’s correct, which she usually is, these… creatures… are many times more powerful. Furthermore, I need hardly add, this is their world. We don’t even know whether this vanishing is to our advantage or not, yet.’ He looked across the blue-tainted countryside. ‘It’s very open. Precious little cover if we go as a group and not much more if we split up.’

‘We should stay here if we can – near the Gateway – wherever it is,’ Dacu said, reiterating his earlier concern.

Yatsu nodded. ‘How far does this cave go back?’

‘Not far,’ Jaldaric said. ‘Twenty, thirty paces and nowhere to hide except amongst the rocks on the ground.’ He held out his hand. It was dirty. ‘No water I’m afraid, but there’s a damp patch at the back,’ he said, wiping the dirt from his hand across his face. ‘At least we can make ourselves less conspicuous.

Yatsu was grim as he returned to Olvric and Yengar. The two riders were conspicuously closer, though it was still not possible to judge how far away they were. Apart from two more brief flashes of light, nothing else had happened since the disappearance – other than the remaining riders’ relentless progress.

‘Time to hide,’ Olvric said, very softly.

A hand signal dispatched the Goraidin into the cave, but Yatsu whispered stern instructions to the others. ‘Do exactly as you’re told. Keep your faces to the ground – they’ll be visible in the dark if you look up. Don’t move. Don’t speak. If any fighting breaks out, keep out of it.’ He nodded towards the cave. ‘We know one another, and we know how to fight together. You’ll certainly hinder us and you might well get cut down by accident. Do you understand?’ Gentren and Pinnatte gave a reluctant ‘Yes’ in the face of this cold-eyed ultimatum but Marna was obviously considering defiance.

Yatsu’s hands flicked out. One tapped her lightly on the cheek while the other took a knife from her belt. Even as she was flinching from the blow the knife was at her throat. ‘That’s an order, cadet,’ he said, unexpectedly gently, as he returned her knife. ‘Your courage isn’t in doubt, but you’re not good enough yet. Not for what might have to be done here.’ Then, to all three. ‘But if the worst comes to the worst, do what you have to do to survive.’

Inside the cave he checked everyone’s positions and whispered a few instructions to the Goraidin before lowering himself into the deep shadow of the rock-strewn floor. Within moments, Yengar and Olvric, crouching low, slipped silently into the cave and vanished from sight.

This would be the testing time, Yatsu knew. Waiting always was. It was what the Goraidin were supremely good at but it tested the calibre as much as any combat. In silent stillness the mind wandered, making sounds and images out of nothing to torment and delude, while the body cried out for movement. And here, who could say what deep shock waves the terrifying disappearance of the Labyrinth hall and their mysterious translation to this place might yet release? Even he was having difficulty setting aside the voice inside him clamouring that perhaps all he had ever known had been swept into oblivion and that he was going to die futilely, cursing an invincible enemy in the blue-tainted darkness on this benighted and ruined world.

Gradually, he became aware of a sound – distant, but high-pitched and flesh-crawling.

Nertha continued to quieten her frantic thoughts by methodically checking the pulse and the breathing of each of the four unconscious men at regular intervals. She did this with deliberate slowness, using her own pulse as a guide to the passage of time. This was easily done. While the pulses of her involuntary charges were normal, hers was fast and urgent. It needed no careful seeking with delicate fingers. It pounded hollowly in her chest and ears.