by Rachel Lee
With eyes closed, Tess watched the rainbow grow among them and around them, scintillating light so pure that even when seen only with the inner eye it inspired an awe near pain.
But then, slowly, she began to see what lay behind it. Gradually her mind revealed to her the golden fabric underlying reality, the warp and woof of the world. There she could see their circle, a brilliant golden light dancing along the threads around a tiny dark spot.
And then she saw the black streak that stretched away from them toward the inky, distorted part of the web controlled by Ardred.
Fear made her heart leap uncomfortably. The darkness was so great, so enormous compared to their small area of golden light. How were they to withstand such a blight? How could it possibly be mended?
With every ounce of energy she possessed, she willed the darkness back from them. It almost seemed to recoil, then stiffened again. Yet it came no closer. Little by little she could almost see it shrink. Part of her wondered if the shrinkage was real or merely an artifact of her wishful thinking.
But as it pulled back, the dark spot in the golden fabric that represented their sister Ilduin shrank. Then, with a pop, it vanished.
At once she felt relief from Cilla and Sara, felt their awareness that the evil had fled from this room. Before Tess could react, the other two grasped the hands of the freed Ilduin and drew her into their circle.
For an instant, they were utterly open in welcome.
And then she heard a voice cry out in her head, “Save me, Sister!”
At once her attention was drawn to the blot of darkness that sullied the golden fabric. Again she heard the cry. Then, in the instant before her sisters could close the circle, she felt the other Ilduin connect with her.
Oily. Cold. Repellent. In trouble. The shock struck her like an ice bath, causing her eyes to fly open and her entire body to stiffen. With every ounce of strength and will she possessed, she tried to drive the presence away, tried to close the connection.
Then her entire world turned black.
Into the blackness emerged the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His hair looked like spun gold, and his eyes were the blue of a summer sky. Garbed all in white, he stepped slowly toward her.
“My love,” he said, his voice as smooth and golden as honey. “I have waited so long for you.”
She felt as if she knew him, yet had never met him. His pull was incredible, drawing her closer to him even though part of her remained uncertain. “I don’t know you.”
The closer she drew to him, the bluer his eyes seemed to grow. He smiled, an expression of such warmth that she ached to know more of it.
“You will know me,” he promised. “We are destined, my love.”
Then his arms closed around her and she felt peace, such peace….
Everyone gathered around Tess, who lay on a bed hastily arranged for her: Archer, Tom, Erkiah, Cilla and Sara. Even the emperor and his daughter stood nearby looking concerned and the Ilduin who had recently been freed, a woman named Yazzi, sat weakly in a chair, clearly drained by all that had just happened.
“She’s gone,” Sara said, anguished. “I cannot feel her!”
“Nor I,” said Cilla. She frowned so deeply her entire face sagged.
Archer sat beside Tess on the pallet and leaned over her, cupping her cheek with one hand. “Tess,” he murmured. “Tess, come to me. You must come back to me.”
“It happened when we opened the circle for Yazzi,” Sara said to Cilla. “Did you feel it? I think the other one joined us.”
“The evil one,” Cilla agreed, nodding. “I think you are right. Something cold touched her then.”
Archer looked up. “Something cold has been trying to seep into her from the beginning of our journey together. So far she has fought it back. What changed?”
Yazzi spoke for the first time since thanking them with all her heart for freeing her. “You opened the circle to welcome me, and at that moment any Ilduin could join. It was then the other one made her move. And my feeling is that she knew exactly who she wanted to take.”
Cilla scowled. “I fear you are right, Yazzi.”
“I have had some months to get the measure of this one. She is powerful, very powerful, else I could have held her off. The most powerful of all Ilduin.”
Sara shook her head. “I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it. The Weaver must be stronger.”
Tom spoke for the first time. “Safe shall she come to Arderon, unmolested, she who holds the warp and woof.”
All except Archer turned to look at him. Tom’s mask once again covered his eyes, making him difficult to read.
Sara reached for his hand. “Are you sure?”
He turned his head toward her. “The gods will not be cheated of their game. We must take her with us.”
“My lady,” Archer murmured. Reaching out, he lifted Tess from the pillow and cradled her close to his chest. “He shall not have her.”
“That is part of what lies in the balance,” Tom said. “And I fear that is beyond prophesy.” His gaze settled on Archer. “All is beyond the reach of prophesy now, for the outcome lies within you, within all of us. But you…Archer, take care. For I can feel that the gods care not whether you live or die.”
“Nor do I,” he said simply. “Nor do I. I care only for you, my companions and Tess.”
“But,” said Lozzi, speaking for the first time and stepping forward from beneath the protection of her father’s arm, “he will not harm Tess while he thinks he has her, nor will he harm those who bring her to him. So she will come safely as the prophet has said. When we arrive…”
“You are not going,” the emperor told her sternly.
The girl faced him. “I am, Father. I have been touched by what the Enemy would do to us all. I cannot stand by and watch while others fight him. If I can help at all, then I must.”
“She can help,” Yazzi said. “I was brought here to train her. Little did I know it was a ruse to capture me. But it is a ruse no longer.”
Sara nodded. “We shall all train her. And help one another through the days to come.”
Archer finally looked up from Tess and scanned all their faces. “Regardless what else may happen twixt now and then, we must march on the morrow at dawn. He has done enough damage.”
He looked sternly at the emperor. “If you cannot make your legions join the Anari in this fight, then we shall go alone. But go we will, before he exacts another toll, one higher than any of us can pay.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Another legion arrived overnight, and messengers had been sent for two others. At dawn two days later, fully three Bozandari legions stood in formation on the plain north of the city. Approaching from the hills came the combined army of the Snow Wolves, banners held high like the signal of a new age.
Those among the Bozandari who might have refused to believe their orders stopped grumbling and arguing when the emperor rode forth in battle splendor, his renowned armor and his personal flag of a gold coronet on a blue background unmistakable to even the lowliest ranks.
Soon displeasure was replaced by amazement, for under the red sky of dawn, the emperor rode forth to meet the Snow Wolves, and he rode with only his cousins Tuzza and Alezzi.
Tuzza introduced the emperor to Ratha and Jenah. Maluzzi was more than polite to them. He gripped hands with them both. “So you are the generals who defeated Tuzza,” he said, a wry little smile on his mouth.
Ratha and Jenha exchanged looks. It was Ratha who spoke. “With the aid of Annuvil and the Weaver, aye.”
“I shall look for their aid as well as yours in the days ahead. I am sure we are all equally sorry to be living out the days of prophecy.”
“’Twould not be my choice,” Jenah said boldly.
The emperor cocked his head to one side. “I am proud to ride beside you. And rest assured, I am not proud of what my people did to yours. There will be no more slavery from this day forth, and those who engage in it will face de
ath. This is my promise to you. I wish only that I had had the courage to act before so many died.”
After a moment, Ratha cleared his throat. “It speaks highly of you that you have acted at all.”
Maluzza shook his head. “It speaks poorly of me that it took so long. Now we ride forth to face an evil that would make slaves of us all. And we ride under greater burden than you imagine.”
“Why so?” Ratha asked.
“Tess,” said Tuzza before the emperor could speak. “Tess. The Evil One has claimed her. She comes with us, but she cannot wake from his hold.”
Ratha lowered his head, and his hands tightened. After a moment he said, “Then we must save her. And the others?”
“Cilla, Sara and Tom are with her, along with two other Ilduin. One is the emperor’s young daughter. You must keep an eye on her, Ratha,” Tuzza said. “Please. She is only a child.”
“I will. I will ensure that all of them are protected.”
“They will come up behind the rest of us,” Alezzi said. “With the rear guard. Perhaps some of the newly freed Anari can help there, until they learn more battle skills.”
Jenah nodded. “They will be glad to be of use. Many have already asked me what they can do, but little enough they know of battles. They have no training. But there is also another group.”
“There is?” Maluzzi was clearly curious.
“Aye. After our first encounter in battle, the lady Tess healed a great many wounded. Thirty of them swore themselves to her service under Topmark Otteda. They have kept watch over her since as her bodyguard.”
“Good,” said Maluzzi. “The Weaver must be protected at all costs.”
“They will do so with their lives.”
“I would expect no less of a soldier of Bozandar.”
Then he turned his mount and followed by Alezzi and Tuzza, he galloped toward his own assembled legions.
With raised hands, Ratha and Jenah motioned the Snow Wolves to follow.
Otteda accepted the trust from Annuvil with a great deal of solemnity. He was surprised at how much it hurt him to see the Lady Tess lying silent and as still as stone on the pallet in the covered horse-drawn cart. The four other Ilduin walked on either side of the cart, making a protective phalanx of their own. Annuvil, he who had been a king yet would not wish to be a king again, rode behind them. Otteda wondered why he did not ride at the front of the army where he belonged, then decided it was none of his business.
With a few sharp orders, he brought the thirty men of the lady’s sworn bodyguard into position around the carriage and the Ilduin. Annuvil nodded to him, a mark of appreciation.
Otteda dared to approach him. “What has happened to the lady?” he asked.
“The Enemy has attacked her. I know not if he has taken her mind, or if she fights him. None can tell. The veil has been lowered, Otteda.”
“What do you mean, my lord?”
Archer looked at him from gray eyes too old and too sorrowful to be merely mortal. “We are walking into the times where none can see the future, for everything depends on the outcome of what we do or fail to do.”
Otteda compressed his lips and squared his shoulders. “I have never been able to see into the future so nothing changes for me. I know only that I must do my duty.”
Archer reached over and clapped his shoulder briefly. “’Tis as much as any of us can say, I suppose.”
“’Tis the most important thing to say. Our duty is clear. I have listened. We will fight the Enemy for the safety of our peoples, our families, our homes. Ever has it been thus. For each man alone, nothing is changed. For the world, the price is higher. I understand that. But for each soldier, what has changed?”
One corner of Archer’s mouth lifted. “You are wise, Otteda. Each can only do what is in his own power.”
“Aye. Still, I would feel much happier if the Weaver were awake.”
“So would I. Indeed, so would I.”
Otteda fell silent, the Lord Annuvil’s sorrow a palpable thing to him. He couldn’t imagine the trials this man had suffered, couldn’t imagine what his life must have been like. Couldn’t imagine having endured it for so long.
Yet he supposed there were those who couldn’t imagine living Otteda’s life. At fourteen he had entered the Legion School, and spent the next four years training to become exactly what he had become: an officer in the empire’s army. Thence he had gone straight to his legion and had stayed with the same legion ever since. He enjoyed the times when he could find a woman to keep him warm, or could spend a night in a town drinking at a tavern, but he rarely sought more. He had his duty, and seemed to need little else other than the companionship of his fellows.
In short, he was ideally suited to the life his family had chosen for him. For that alone he was grateful.
His days were ordered, his path straight. Until he had sworn allegiance to the Lady Tess, he realized now as he glanced over at her motionless form. At that moment the neat and predictable order of his days, though he had not seen it at the time, had been forever changed.
The Lord Annuvil was right, he realized. They were truly marching into the unknown, to a place where there would be few signposts to guide them.
As they marched northwest toward Arderon, toward the mountains, the terrain became increasingly more forbidding and more difficult to traverse. They were skirting the southern edge of the Deder Desert, long the province of cutthroats and thieves. While such were no threat to an army, the officers took care to ensure that foraging parties went out in strength. Even so, their gleanings grew leaner, for even the dry plains surrounding the Deder seemed desolate as compared to the Anari lands. They were not helped by the fact that Arderon was more a rumor than a place. If anyone had ever gone there, he had never returned. Rumors of its existence had existed since time out of mind, but not even Archer knew its location.
The Ilduin assured the army’s leaders that it did indeed exist, but only Yazzi seemed to have a clear idea of where.
“While I was possessed,” she said on the second night of their march, “a memory was impressed upon me. Not my own, I am sure. It must belong to the Ilduin who imprisoned me. But she was in Arderon, and she knew its location.”
Annuvil, who sat on the cot beside Tess in the huge tent that served as headquarters and residence to the Ilduin, spoke. “You can guide us there?”
Yazzi hesitated. “I think so. I would feel better if I draw it on a map.”
Maluzza, the emperor spoke. “But you believe we are so far headed in the right direction?”
Yazzi nodded. “Though I have never been there, I know that it lies beyond the Plain of Dederand, beyond the Sea of Glass.”
“No one ever goes there,” Maluzzi remarked.
Tuzza nodded his agreement. “Which is perhaps why Arderon has remained nothing but a rumor all these years. Past the Sea of Glass, the mountains become nearly impassible. To my knowledge, no one has ever crossed them or dwelt there.”
Yazzi spoke. “They can be crossed. There is a way.”
Maluzza rubbed his chin and leaned back in his chair. He looked at Alezzi and Tuzza. “What say you? Will it be a trap?”
“It is likely,” Tuzza responded. “Would he put his city in a place easy to attack? We will need to draw him out.”
“You may draw his army out,” Annuvil said, “but you will not draw him out.”
“Then what?” demanded Maluzza. “You say we must be rid of him, yet it appears we cannot reach him.”
“The armies may not be able to reach him. But a small party can.”
“I like this not,” Maluzza said.
“It remains, we must defeat his hives and armies as well as him.”
“Aye,” said Tuzza. “I have no argument against that. Mayhap we will proceed one step at a time.”
At that moment, a dusty messenger entered the tent and stood at attention, waiting to be acknowledged.
“What is it?” the emperor said.
“Two mo
re legions join us by dawn, my emperor. And behind them come two more.”
Maluzza nodded. “Good. Excellent. Go rest and eat.”
The messenger bowed, then slipped from the tent.
“We will be strong enough then,” Alezzi observed.
“For the first part at least,” agreed Annuvil. He lifted Tess’s hand and gently stroked the back of it. “For the rest…for the rest we need her, or all is lost.”
Uneasiness lay over the armies camped in the foothills of the craggy mountains: uneasiness about the morrow, uneasiness about their alliance. The Snow Wolves camped apart from the others, not as much through their own doubts as because they were made to feel unwelcome by the other legions. And yet, as acceptance and understanding began to filter through the ranks of the Bozandari officers, the atmosphere began a slow but subtle shift.
Ratha and Jenah were astonished by a visit from the overmark of the White Tiger Legion. He stepped through their open tent door boldly enough, the cold air turning his breath into an icy cloud. For long moments he did not speak as he stared at the two Anari sitting at the folding camp table, a map spread before them. They stared back, watchful, distrustful.
Finally the dark-haired Bozandari officer spoke. “I am Overmark Suzza of the White Tiger Legion,” he said.
Ratha rose. “Ratha Monabi, co-commander of the Snow Wolves. This is my second, Jenah Gewindi.” He inclined his head respectfully, and Overmark Suzza answered with an equally respectful bow.
“It seems we have become allies,” Suzza said after a moment’s hesitation.
“Aye,” Ratha agreed. “Necessity makes for odd companions.”
A faint smile lifted the corners of Suzza’s mouth. “I am cold,” he said. “You have a warm fire. Perhaps, if you do not object too much, I might bide with you a little while. It seems to me that if we are to fight a common enemy, we would do well to get to know each other.”
