‘All right?’ whispered Bel.
‘Got it,’ puffed Hiza.
Jaya appeared behind him, working her way around with dextrous grace.
Bel turned to concentrate on his last pace. Gellan was waiting to help him, and ahead the ridge ran sunny and open. Bel felt extremely exposed. If Fazel was watching, he’d have a clear shot at them in this assailable position. Gritting his teeth, he made some fast little sidesteps and finally cleared the boulder, Gellan catching his arm to steady him.
‘Get down,’ breathed Gellan, and they crouched as they waited.
Hiza followed closely, still white but visibly relieved to be on firm ground again. ‘Let’s not go back that way,’ he said.
Jaya moved nimbly off the ledge, not bothering to take Gellan’s offered hand – she hadn’t even broken a sweat. ‘This has nothing on running across tiles three storeys up in the driving rain,’ she whispered in Bel’s ear.
‘Dastardly thief,’ he replied softly, more in acknowledgement than humour, for he was distracted, scanning the ridge ahead.
Last came M’Meska. In a way, the Saurian was better equipped than the rest of them to manoeuvre in such a fashion, for her knees bent backwards and thus did not butt against the boulder as she moved around it. Her claws, however, did not seem to grip the hard surface as readily as hands. Her tail was an extra weight behind her, and as it began to swing more and more wildly, it became apparent that she was having trouble balancing. She gave a grunt and clutched the rock, frozen in place.
‘Come on, M’Meska,’ Hiza whispered. ‘You’re almost there.’
‘Damn rocks and damn wet and damn blue-haired men,’ she spat.
With a start, she realised that the ledge was beginning to give way beneath her. She shifted her feet but still clung to the same place as stones rained down. Her claw slid free and scraped loudly along the rock, and she grabbed at the vine already loosened by Hiza. It gave way with a jerk and then caught again somehow, leaving her leaning out over the drop. Her waving tail made her sway back and forth, pulling on the vine even more. The snap of the creeper had a sound like finality, and its green length turned loose in her grip. M’Meska gave a croak and toppled backwards off the ledge.
Gellan shot out a hand. M’Meska froze in the air, her yellow eyes blank with fear, and Gellan made a further motion as if beckoning her to him. The Saurian floated over, banging her knees on the cliff edge less than gently, and sprawled at their feet. Hiza crouched to put a hand on her.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
‘Sssh!’ said Gellan, peering through the bushes. ‘That use of magic will not go unnoticed.’
‘What do you sense?’ said Bel.
Gellan blinked and then said, ‘Get down!’
All were momentarily blinded as light issued out from Gellan, creating a protective ward around them. The next moment, blue energy was breaking against it, melting the bushes that stood outside its perimeter. Gellan grunted, withstanding the assault for all of them. As the bushes dripped away, Bel searched the ridge ahead for signs of their attacker. On the opposite side, across the gap, he caught the movement of someone disappearing around a bend.
‘He flees,’ said Gellan.
‘After him!’ shouted Bel.
He took off down the ridge, leaving Gellan’s ward and ignoring the call to wait. He rounded the bend and saw, some way ahead on the opposite ridge, a fast-moving figure in a green cloak seeming to glide along between the rocks and plants. Without thinking, Bel hurled his sword so that it spun horizontally, blade flashing in the sun. Over an almost impossible distance, the butt of the blade cracked the figure on the back of the head and sent it forward to the ground.
‘Stay behind me!’ he heard Gellan shout to the others, and felt a whoosh of heated air as a fireball rushed past him.
On the ground the figure rolled, and a blackened skeletal hand shot up. Shadows curled outwards and the fireball slammed into them, fading away quickly against the shadow mage’s defence. As the figure leaped spryly to its feet, both hands came forth issuing twin bolts of energy, one towards Gellan and the other at Bel.
Bel dived behind rocks, where stone splinters blasted the back of his neck. He saw the other attack crash against Gellan’s light, which the mage carried along with him and the others like a wavering bubble. M’Meska flinched, then bounded away from Gellan and his protective glow, leaping on her powerful hind legs across the gap to the other side. She landed with an arrow ready in her bow.
‘Come back!’ shouted Gellan. ‘I can’t protect you from afar!’ He ran with Hiza and Jaya at his heels, blocking bolts that the fast-fleeing figure flung, almost casually, over its shoulder.
Ignoring Gellan’s warning, M’Meska bounded onwards, sending arrows ahead of her. Bel sprang to his feet and followed on his side of the crevasse, just a little ahead of Gellan and the others, feeling naked without his sword. Several of M’Meska’s arrows caught in the figure’s shadow ward as if it was thick tar, then flipped around and flew back towards her.
‘Watch out!’ called Bel. M’Meska made an almighty jump to land behind a tree, as arrows peppered the other side of the trunk. More fireballs issued from Gellan and the figure stumbled under the barrage but managed to stay on its feet.
As Bel ran, he felt his blood begin to truly fire. The sensation was like a lesser form of what he’d experienced in Drel – he did not slip into that same berserk rage, for he wanted to catch Fazel, not kill him, and the pattern that was forming on the edge of his senses seemed to reflect this. It became like a path unfurling in front of him, guiding his steps one after the other, but not taking him over.
M’Meska joined the pursuit again, all alone on the other side of the ridge. At the next bend the figure twisted to face her, knocking aside her arrows easily with a wave, and reached out to seize her in an invisible grip. M’Meska convulsed and shrieked in pain, and Bel heard Gellan curse behind him. The figure flicked its fingers and M’Meska hurtled against the cliff face with a hard smack, rebounded into a crumpled heap, and lay still. Bel roared and increased his pace as the figure disappeared around the next bend.
The sound of running water grew louder, and as Bel reached the bend he saw that on the opposite ridge, water was gushing down the cliff and spattering on the rocks, leaving a fine mist in the air. The figure had stopped, facing him, waiting in the midst of the falling water. When it saw him it began to weave its hands, droplets cascading off. Bel slowed, wary of magic. Quickly the others caught up, Hiza and Jaya with their swords drawn still inside Gellan’s ward. Bel almost snatched the sword from Hiza’s grip, but something stopped him – it did not seem very heroic to take a companion’s only weapon.
‘Stay close,’ urged Gellan, moving beside Bel to ensure that he was mostly back inside the ward. ‘For the love of Arkus, do not run ahead again.’
‘What’s he doing?’ said Jaya.
There was a crackling in the air, and something brushed Bel’s arm where it hung just outside the ward – something cold.
‘Stay within the light,’ warned Gellan.
There was a whiz next to Bel’s ear.
‘He’s freezing the mist,’ said Gellan.
Everywhere, tiny suspended particles of moisture were crystallising to ice. They flew, sharp and tiny, in their thousands. There was a sharp, shooting pain in Bel’s exposed arm like a wasp sting, and he glanced down to see minuscule shards burying in his flesh, where they melted amidst the damage they caused. He drew his arm back into the light.