Elyana sent him off to find their companions. "Tell them we leave shortly," she instructed, "and that they must be ready for departure."
"They'll be eating cold eggs if they don't get here soon," Drelm said, chewing. "I hate cold eggs."
No one else had turned up by the end of breakfast, so Elyana asked another young elf to lead them to the stables.
Persaily was happy to see Elyana, although the mare hadn't suffered in her absence. Her coat had been so carefully brushed that it shone with a high gloss. Burrs and cockles had been combed from her mane. Even her saddle had been polished.
"Huh," Drelm said. "Your folk know horse care. I'll give them that."
Kellius arrived as Elyana was fitting in Persaily's bit. The wizard looked bleary-eyed but happy, and munched on a hard roll. A wreath of little white flowers decorated his hat brim.
"You're late," Drelm told him.
"Yes ...I'm sorry about that. I'm afraid I lost track of time."
Elyana looked over at him. "It might have been wiser to ensure a good night's sleep. The vale is but one day off, and you'll need all your strength."
"Indeed." Kellius rubbed his forehead. "I've not had proper time to study my spells."
"That was folly," Drelm told him, and Elyana did not naysay the judgment. It interested and pleased her that since yesterday the half-orc had adopted the role of her lieutenant.
Renar came jogging up next, pasty and out of breath. His hair was wet. "Sorry—I was in the bath."
"Your father would not delay so," Drelm told him, and Renar lowered his eyes.
Elyana did not correct that judgment, although she was not so sure it was true. Stelan had sometimes lingered for extra time with a particular elven maiden, as she well knew.
Renar tried to look busy and useful by double-checking all of their equipment. Elyana had already done that, but she left Renar to his charade.
Vallyn did not stroll up until Lord Alavar himself had appeared. Unlike the other two, he looked neither embarrassed nor bleary. His eyes were tired, true, but he had a spring in his step.
Drelm glared at the bard but did not rebuke him. Either he thought the bard outside the rank structure, or knew well enough that the bard would simply shrug off the criticism, or turn it into a joke.
Alavar bade them all good morning, and told them that there would be one overnight before their arrival. "There are few hazards upon the way, although we will pass through some dense wilderland. My hunters keep the most menacing predators clear of our perimeters." As he spoke, Aliel walked up, and he waved her forward. "My niece Aliel will be accompanying us as well. I believe she has already met some of you."
Aliel wore riding pants and boots this day, and her hair was tightly braided. Elyana bowed her head in greeting, but the elven girl barely had eyes for her. The full force of her beauty was directed like a ray of summer sun onto Renar, who caught it and smiled stupidly back.
Elyana held off groaning. Did the boy think he had found love, here? Elven love with humans was a fickle thing ...though hers had not been, she reminded herself. Was she too jaded, or had she grown old and cynical?
And it might be, she realized, that she was jealous of their happiness.
Their packs replenished with elven breads, nuts, and dried meats and fruits, they climbed into their saddles. Alavar led them down the switchback trail to the river canyon.
They emerged on a narrow strip of land beside the river. Warriors looked down from what she first took to be a rocky outcropping. As the elven sentinels raised hands in greeting she realized that they stood atop a high tower cunningly worked into the cliff side.
Alavar guided them on past a collection of small outbuildings and rows of furrowed ground. Elyana heard Aliel explaining that they'd terraced the soil to grow crops that needed more moisture.
Drelm eyed the fortifications with interest, and Elyana imagined him noting the deceptively decorative walls and defensive points along the ramp. As beautiful and idyllic as the elven hold might seem, with its walls and towers decorated by flowering vines, it would be no easy task to win. The river and the canyon were barriers, just like the overland route and its tunnels with multiple choke points.
A quarter-hour's ride alongside the river brought them to Elistia's westernmost outpost, a fortified tower built beside the cliff face, looking like nothing so much as a weathered pillar of rocks until close study revealed a sturdy door and arrow slits. An arched stone bridge stretched across the river beside it. While all the buildings and structures Elyana had seen in the last day looked delicate and organic, the bridge itself had been fashioned with blunt, simple lines. Its stone was so smooth that she perceived no mortar. Water had rounded the lower reaches of the great bridge pylons, but near the two arches their lines were straight and crisp.
Once they'd passed through the gate and up the ramp to the bridge, Elyana saw the thing was practically level. Perhaps perfectly so. There was no stone railing, as a human or elf might have constructed.
"Lord Alavar," Kellius called from behind. "Who built this bridge?"
The lord addressed him over his shoulder. "I wish I could say, young wizard. Elven scholars have spent long years studying it, but the bridge is barren of marker or engraving or obvious stylistic identifiers. It may be dwarven work, for it is certainly sturdy enough to be fashioned by the folk of the deep rock, but there are no other signs. And scholars tell me they can detect no impact of hammer or chisel, only marks left by natural degradation. It is as though the whole thing were crafted at once from a single block of stone, yet there is no residue of magic."
"Perhaps it's so old that it has faded." Kellius, usually timid while on horseback, was glancing furtively from side to side at the river roaring forty feet below. Elyana noted that he was not concerned with the water foaming between the arches. Most of his attention was reserved for the stone beneath their horses' hooves.
Before long they had left the mystery of the bridge and were climbing up a cleft that Alavar told them had been smoothed over by elven wizards to make an accessible path. "In olden times there was naught here but an ancient, featureless stone stair, much like the span we so recently vacated. It was poorly suited for horse travel."
There must have been a large number of steps, because summiting the ramp alone took more than an hour. They were not quite up into the frost, but the wind in the highlands proved cutting and cold.
They pressed on, stopping at midday for a sumptuous meal of fresh fish, subtle cheese, delicate bread, and more elven wine, then remounted. In the late afternoon the trail descended once more into a wide valley flowering with ragwort and aster, and it was here that Alavar declared they would set up their camp.
"The vale lies but a quarter-day on," he told them. "Aliel will take care of you thenceforth."
"You're returning, Lord?" Elyana asked. He must have already planned to do so, she noticed, for two of their four escorts were turning rein with Elistia's ruler.
"I want to be on hand should your pursuers draw closer to Elistia." Alavar raised a hand in parting, speaking Elven. "Fare you well, Elyana. I hope that we shall set eyes upon each other once more, and that your comrades survive along with you. Aliel and my Sentinels will deliver you to the valley and await your return for four cycles of the sun. After which—we can offer only prayer."
"I understand," Elyana told him with bowed head. "We are grateful to you for your aid."
"It is my pleasure." He answered her first in the common tongue, then finished in Elven. "I hope that your baron appreciates the enormous risks you take upon his behalf."
With that he turned his horse with an effortless nudge of his knees, and in moments he and his escort had vanished over the crest of a hill.
Chapter Thirteen
Into the Vale
Aliel was all sweetness and light across the
campfire that evening, begging them to talk of themselves and their experiences, but Renar was the only one of them she successfully drew out. Soon the two of them were speaking of childhood memories, lost in each other's eyes.
The two elven guards kept apart. They seemed altogether nonplussed with their assignment and spent no extra effort attempting conversation with their charges. One had already crawled off to rest by meal's end, and the other stood watch at a distance.
"Looks as though Renar's elven vacation is going to last a little longer than mine," Vallyn said wistfully as he watched the couple, then stretched his arms. "I think I'd best turn in early. It was a late night."
"Vallyn's right," Kellius said. "I've studying to do, and I'm already tired. I'd best get at it."
Vallyn retreated to his tent, although he did not sleep immediately, for Elyana heard the light strumming of his lute for almost an hour. Kellius sat close to the fire as the wind picked up, studying his spellbook and jamming his wilted-flower-bedecked hat more tightly on his head during violent gusts. Renar and Aliel wandered back to a tent, hand-in-hand, still chattering happily.
"Get some sleep, young lord," Drelm growled at his back.
The light was dim, but Elyana was certain she saw the young man's cheeks redden when he looked back over his shoulder at the half-orc. If Renar felt embarrassment, it could not have been for long, for once he disappeared into Aliel's tent he and the maiden could soon be heard laughing together.
The half-orc sucked at his wine sack for only a moment, then set it aside, and he and Elyana stared into the fire. She wondered if Arcil were watching them even now, and, not for the first time, wondered how she would stop him. How long would the cleric of Abadar be able to keep Stelan alive if she found the crown but could not get it to work? Had the clerics even managed to keep Stelan alive this long?
Drelm interrupted her thoughts. "The baron moves well, for an old man," he said softly. "I would like to have seen him in his prime."
"He's not an old man, yet," Elyana countered. Or was he?
"He is certainly not young. You are fortunate to have seen him in battle."
"Yes," Elyana agreed. Drelm looked as though he felt talkative again, but she didn't, not with so many worries crowding up behind her. She bade the half-orc a good night and crawled off to her tent and her bedroll and lay down again alone.
She rose before dawn, refreshed and alert, and after her morning stretches she stood to gaze at the distant peaks. She thought of the stirring speeches Stelan used to give before combat. They were short and direct and usually involved a prayer. She would be leading none of those. Instead, after breakfast she left Aliel and her guards aside and gathered her meager force.
"You have all seen the Plane of Shadow," she told them. "We will face something very much like it. In such a place, the borders are fluid and shifting. There is constant movement. Don't worry about things on the horizon or more than a few hundred feet away. Worry instead about the closer details. Where to set your feet. Why something seems to move when there is no breeze." She checked over their faces and found all attentive.
"Once we are in the valley, we seek a tower, and any such structure is likely to be well guarded, though not necessarily in any obvious way. There will be magical hazards we may not see, so Kellius will need to examine the approach and the entrance carefully."
"Shadow magic's no joke, lad," Vallyn told Renar. "Your father and Elyana and I faced it too many times. Half the folk that rode with us didn't come out, and one of them turned." The bard's eyes roved over them all, but fixed intently upon the young man. "If you want to come out alive, we'll have to keep an eye out for each other. It's not just about watching out for yourself. Keep alert for dangers to your friends."
Renar put his hand to his hilt, looking ages older. At least he seemed to be taking the venture seriously.
"Kiss that pretty elven lass again too, boy," Vallyn continued, "so you remember how sweet life is."
The young man blushed at that and looked down at his feet. This time, though, Elyana caught a hint of a smile and knew that he was proud to have found love, and to have others notice he had done so.
They packed up the camp and climbed back into the saddle. The sun was bright, and as the path sloped down the air grew warm. It would have been easy to imagine they rode off for a picnic, or a summer idyll.
Then they reached a ridge looking over the valley and stopped to gaze down into an expanse of roiling darkness lying between the slopes of two steep mountainsides. Black vapor drifted up from its edges and into the sky, dissipating as the wind of the heights swept it up.
"There's only one way in," Aliel said in her clear, high voice. "There are magical wards, but I will open them for you."
Elyana listened to her only distractedly. The clouds of the vale were black as thunderheads. She could faintly perceive the outline of what might have been treetops far below the darkness, but everything was hazy and indistinct.
"Does the valley always look like this?" Elyana asked.
"I have seen it but three times before," Aliel answered. "Twice it has looked thus. Once the shadow was far dimmer. Uncle says sometimes it is all but imperceptible, like an ache gnawing at the back of your skull."
"And why is it worse sometimes than others?" Kellius asked her.
A slight frown marred her clear features. "Our sages do not know, and have not been terribly inclined to investigate at length. The changing conditions seem unconnected with season or weather and obey only some unseen ebb and flow on the Plane of Shadow itself."
Elyana lifted her hand and gestured to their guide. "Show us the way in."
In another quarter-hour they stood at the top of a gentle slope and the edge of darkness that looked much like the shore of a tarry sea.
Elyana turned in her saddle and faced her comrades. "Drelm and I can see better in the murk, so rely on us. Captain, you take left flank, I'll take right." Elyana swung down off of Persaily and pressed her reins into the hands of one of the stoic elven Sentinel's hands. She faced Aliel.
"She is a fine, fine horse," Elyana told her. "If I do not return, take good care of her."
Aliel blinked at her, eyes wide in astonishment. "Oh, I am certain you will return," she said, sounding affronted that Elyana would discuss mortality.
"Regardless, see to her."
"That I shall, and with great pleasure." Aliel smiled as she rubbed the mare's nose. Persaily snorted in response.
The others dismounted and ran a final check of their gear. Renar finished first and spent a long moment holding Aliel's hands and staring into her eyes, then, needing no inspiration from Vallyn, kissed her once more. His obvious reluctance to depart gave Elyana the opening she'd sought for a long while.
"Renar, we must speak."
The young lord looked surprised, but stepped away with her.
She waited until they'd drawn more than a dozen paces off, then lowered her voice. "I think you should remain."
Renar's eyebrows arched and his mouth opened, but she shushed him.
"You do not have the experience of the rest of us."
"Kellius has precious little himself," Renar countered.
"He commands powers that you do not. You have come this far, and it is enough that you were determined to enter. You need do no more."
He frowned. "I'm the lord; I'm in charge."
"You have not been in charge since our departure, and you well know it."
Renar hesitated a moment, then lifted his chin. "I outrank you."
She had to struggle to keep her amusement from her voice. His pose resembled that of a stubborn child, but she'd do well not to point that out to him. "Indeed you do, but as your father would say, I have almost no respect for rank."
"So you're not going to let me?" Renar lifted his hands in exasperation. "Ho
w are you going to stop me?"
"You mistake this expedition for something simple. Your father and I dared nothing like this until we were seasoned."
"You don't think I'd survive."
How to impress upon him the very real danger they faced? "I'm not sure that we'll survive. What will your barony do if both you and your father perish? What will your mother say if I return with only your body?"
The boy set his lips in a tense line.
"You can stay here, with Aliel, and await our return."
"You want me to stay with a woman while you and the others risk your lives?"
Her voice was sharp. "You think women are soft, Renar, and that you are soft to stay with one?"
"I—yes—no—" He sputtered on, his eyes meeting hers and then drifting away. "What will Aliel think if I stay here?" He asked softly. "I am not a coward."
"She will know that I commanded you to remain."
"But you cannot command me. I am the baron. The acting baron."
"That is a fiction, and everyone knows it."
His jaw set. "I'm going with you, and you cannot make me stay." Though the declaration was childish, the words that followed were better chosen. "I would be ashamed for the rest of my life if I were to wait here holding a maiden's hand while the folk I will one day command risk their lives for my father."
She considered him for a longer moment, then inclined her head. She had advised him, but she would not force him into her choice.
"I thank you again for your counsel," he said, then strode off to bow formally to Aliel.
He would probably die, Elyana thought, but she had done her best. Not that Lenelle would understand. He was his own master now; she had no right to do more.
Renar returned, and she assigned him to stay beside Drelm. Kellius took the middle, and Vallyn stood on her left.
"Let's go," she said, and they started forward with her.
It was strange to walk slowly into the darkness. She watched as it climbed over her boots, her hips, her shoulders ...and then it was above her head.
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