The two Shadow-creatures flowed by Jervon, heading directly for me. “No! Joisan, you must get away!” Sylvya stepped before me, her trill sharpening in her anxiety. “Your daughter, Lady! They seek your child!”
I shrank back, my heart hammering as I realized she was speaking the truth. My bootheels were against Kerovan’s side now—the wraith-lady reached for me again and I took yet another step, so that I balanced with one foot on either side of his body. If I retreated any farther, I would be abandoning my lord in order to protect my child-No! I could not—would not—choose one over the other!
My hand, went instinctively to my breast, seeking the crystal gryphon—but of course that was gone. My groping fingers brushed only the Amber Lady’s talisman, the ripened wheat and grape-bound amulet of Gunnora—Gunnora. I looked again to the moon, that orb that is also Her symbol. “Gunnora,” I said clearly. “Amber Lady, hear me, please! Give these poor creatures the rest they crave, I beg of you! You who protects the young and we who carry them—help me!”
As before, the amulet began to glow, sending amber ripples of light out to envelop the wraiths. Like frost in the morning sun, they began to fade… fade… and then, with a final glimmer, they were gone!
Leaving only the two Shadow-creatures. I walked quickly up to Sylvya, who motioned me yet again to retreat. “No,” I said firmly. “Give me your hand, my sister. I will not escape at the price of leaving my comrades here to face them—living with that knowledge would be worse than succumbing to them here and now.”
I forced myself to stare at the two Shadow-creatures, ignoring the stomach-twisting wrongness they exuded, that of beings completely outside their rightful time and place. Like tiny rips in the fabric of reality, they seemed, as they slowly flowed to front the two of us—
Not just two of us, I realized suddenly, three. Within me was a child holding greater Power than any of us here could claim. But an embryonic Power all the same, unable to think or reason. Little one, I thought, reaching out for Sylvya, lend me your strength, also…
Sylvya’s hand grasped mine, and I realized with this first touch that it was only through the child that she had been able to reach me for these many days. It was as though she were the holding link in the chain between me and my daughter (for daughter it was, Sylvya was right—the spirit that touched me now was clearly feminine).
Shutting my eyes, I let my awareness travel inward, seeking the strength that the child possessed but could not shape or direct. There! It was as though I had discovered another Will, one that inhabited my body but did not belong to me.
Touching that other strength, that Power, I channeled it, directed it outward…
Those Shadow-creatures were not properly of this world. Therefore they could not be allowed to stay. Using the child’s Power as I would use a tool to cut, I opened—
I heard Elys cry out, raised my eyes to see a flash of violet light over our heads and, beyond it, a glimpse of stars—black stars on a paper-white sky.
The world reeled past me as I glimpsed that strange otherness, that place beyond the Gate I had opened. Steadying my Will, still clinging to Sylvya’s hand, I gestured at the Shadow-creatures. “Your home lies there! Go!” And with all the Power that lay within me, I pushed.
There was a hideous moment of touching, of resistance; then it broke, and, with the sound of a mountain falling, my world turned inside out.
12
Kerovan
The night was gentle against my face, yielding like fistfuls of wool, filled with the quiet sounds of talking. I lay on a hard, rocky surface, but my head was pillowed on something yielding and warm. For a moment I lay content not to remember, simply to rest, to know that I lived. I did not want to open my eyes. That gesture would tie me again to the real world, to striving, and pain, and discovery…
Idly, I identified the voices I could hear.
“Pass me the waterskin again, please, Jervon. I have never been so thirsty, it seems!” That was Elys. Somehow, without seeing them, I knew she was sitting beside her lord, their sides touching.
I heard the gurgle of the liquid. My own mouth was dry… I resisted the urge to lick my lips. Waking would bring demands, and for the moment I wanted none, save only to know I was alive, and so was my lady… for Joisan sat beside me. The softness pillowing my head was her lap.
“Here, Lady Sylvya.” There came the sound of footsteps.
“I have some selka juice here. Perhaps you would like it.” Caret’s voice.
“My thanks.” That was Sylvya’s trill.
So… we had all survived. I wondered idly how the Shadow-creatures and the wraiths had been bested. I had drifted in and out of consciousness for several minutes during that battle, hearing but not seeing, and now I remembered a jumble of words. Sylvya had spoken of a—Hastily my mind skittered away from memory when it pressed too close. I could not have heard correctly…
“How is he, Joisan?” That was Guret, sitting down beside my lady.
“He has been asleep,” she said, and I felt her touch, lighter than the night air, on my hair, smoothing it back from my forehead. I could tell from her voice she was smiling. “But now he begins to wake, though he has not vet consented to open his eyes.”
Found out, I lifted my eyelids hastily, then strove to get up. The reality of the task proved far harder than the idea—but finally I sat, looking around me. We were in the ruins, outside the Guardians’ place. The horses were tethered nearby, and a small blaze threw back the last shadows of the night with brave yellow flames. Jervon, Elys, Sylvya, Guret, and Joisan were gathered around it. “There was no sign of any of our enemies.
“The Shadows… the wraiths—” I began, only to have my voice crack from dryness. Joisan handed me the waterskin and I drank thirstily as she explained that they were gone, defeated.
“How?” I asked, around a mouthful of the joumeybread Guret produced from his saddlebag.
“The Lady Joisan,” Elys said, her voice holding a faint current of amusement. “First she persuaded Gunnora to grant the wraiths the peace of true death, then she opened a Gate to send the Shadows back whence they had come. And to think three years ago I told her that some small share of the Craft might be awakened in her if she strove hard and was patient!”
My lady smiled. “And so I owe my success to you, Elys, for telling me I might be able to learn. And for giving me those first few hints as to how to seek wisdom within myself.”
“It seems you have been an excellent student,” Elys agreed wryly. “I feel fortunate that we are comrades, not opponents!”
“But to open a Gate…” I shook my head. “Only with Landisl’s Power to draw on was I able to do such, even in a fortress steeped in sorcery, where the reserves had been strengthened through ages of waiting. How could you…”
Joisan looked away, and it seemed to me I saw a faint flush redden her face even more than the firelight. “I had Sylvya to help.”
“The Shadows…” I frowned, trying now to remember. “And Sylvya was speaking. She said—” I stopped as the full memory rushed back in. I looked at Joisan and knew the truth. Why didn’t you tell me? I demanded silently. I never guessed—it is true? You are going to have a child?
Her chin came up as she met my gaze unflinchingly, but her mouth trembled. We are, she admitted. I tried to tell you, but there was no time… For a long second she watched me, as though she had never seen my face before. Tell me, Kerovan… are you—please say you are—glad?