What else did she remember? Only discovery, and seeing her own death in the flash of a knife in the darkness. Well, she had been spared for the present, though she knew her reprieve would not last long - and that her death, when finally it came, would be a drawn-out agony that would make her wish for the clean, swift, merciful ending of the blade.
In order to distract herself from thoughts of the hideous, and probably brief, future that lay before her, Tiolani began to listen to the soft conversations of her captors, hoping against hope to hear something - anything - that might help her escape.
‘Damn it, Danel, she weighs a ton.’
‘Aye, and carrying her like this, it’s a bugger to get through the bushes,’ another voice complained. ‘Why we had to bring her along, I don’t know. She’s a cursed nuisance, and a danger to us all.’
‘Evnas is right,’ a third voice added. ‘Let’s just stick a knife in her right now. A few inches of dirt over her, and the bloody Phaerie will never know what happened to her.’
‘I think they’d guess, don’t you?’ Danel asked, with a deceptive mildness. Tiolani, with her own will of iron, was quick to recognise the same trait in another.
‘So what?’ It was Evnas again. ‘I’d rather the labour of digging than have to carry the bitch any further. In fact, if they’ll guess anyway, why dig at all? Just kill her and be done, and leave her for carrion. The wolverines and bears and worms will take care of the rest.’
‘No.’ The leader’s voice was like steel. ‘If you’re tired, Evnas, change places with Thu. He hasn’t had a turn at carrying her yet.’
As Tiolani was lowered to the ground then lifted again, Danel carried on speaking. ‘We need to take some time to think about this. There might be some way we can use her as a hostage, or a bargaining counter. They’re bound to want her back.’
‘They’ll want her all right,’ Evnas said. ‘Enough to return with their hounds and bows and stinking magic, and slaughter the lot of us. The bloodshed we’ve already suffered will be as nothing compared to the massacre that will happen if they think we’re holding her. They’ll wipe us out, down to the last man, woman and babe in arms.’
‘No they won’t,’ Danel said decisively. ‘Don’t you see, we have a chance to make them stop hunting us now? We’ll tell them that if any more of us are harmed, we’ll kill their ruler.’
‘And then what? We can’t keep the bitch for ever, clothing her and feeding her and tying up men who can ill be spared from hunting to guard her every hour of every day. And what about her accursed magic? Sooner or later she’ll escape, or be rescued, or we’ll be forced to kill her. Then the Wild Hunt will be back for us with a vengeance.’
Danel swore imaginatively. ‘You have a point,’ she said at last. ‘But maybe there’s another way. She might buy us a little time, at least, to get our people out of the Phaerie realm. We could go south, away from the Hunt—’
‘And right into the hands of the bloody Wizards. Have you lost your mind, Danel? Do you want to be a slave again?’
There was the sudden, meaty sound of a fist striking flesh, and a grunt of pain. ‘I lead here, Evnas.’ Danel’s voice was as cold and inexorable as stone. ‘Before my father died he nominated me to stand in his place. I may be young, but our losses have diminished since I took over and so far, I’ve led you well. If you think otherwise, you can call for a vote in council - and much good may it do you. Now, I’m telling you for the last time, we don’t want to be hasty in killing Hellorin’s daughter. Because you’re right about one thing - if they find out we’ve murdered another of their leaders, the bloody Phaerie won’t rest until they’ve hunted every one of us down.’
She sighed. ‘I almost wish she hadn’t landed in our territory tonight. Those stupid Phaerie would have to come crashing down practically into our laps - we didn’t have much choice but to defend ourselves. But since we have her, let’s wait and see if there’s any good we can wrest from the situation. Remember, as long as she’s alive we still have options, but once we’ve stuck a knife in her - much as I’d like to do it myself - well, we can’t bring her back again.’
For a moment, there were mutterings among the band, until another voice, female this time, spoke up. ‘Well, maybe you’re right, Danel. I truly hope you are. Though I think—’
But what she thought was never to be revealed.
Suddenly the ferals froze, startled as wild hares, then dropped down into the undergrowth, dragging Tiolani with them. What had alarmed them? She had heard nothing. The storm was finally blowing itself out now; the rain had ceased, the thunder and lightning had rolled on towards the mountains, and even the ravaging wind had dropped significantly.
The ferals, signalling to one another in some code of their own devising, left her in the bushes and crept forward, silent as drifting smoke. Then from somewhere up ahead, Tiolani heard what had panicked them, and her heart leapt with hope. Horses, she heard horses, and two raised voices. She caught her breath at the sound of familiar, beloved tones. Ferimon! He had survived. He was here. He would save her.
Before she could act, a hand gripped her shoulder through the meshes of the net, and she felt the sting of a knife point in the hollow of her throat. ‘Make a sound, you die,’ a voice hissed. ‘Use your mindspeech or your filthy magic, warn them in any way, and I’ll dismember you piece by piece.’
Tiolani froze; helpless, terrified, scarcely breathing. Even as she cursed herself for her cowardice, even as she steeled herself to risk all in a mind-cry to her love, she heard Ferimon speaking.
His words turned her heart to gall and ashes.
Kelon had spent a cold, wet, wretched night beneath the minimal shelter of the wind-blown trees. But while his body was wracked by the storm, his thoughts were tortured with concern over Aelwen. When last he had heard from her, she had still been airborne, battling the tempest. Had she landed safely? The fact that he could no longer contact her by mindspeech did not bode well. And even if she had reached the ground in safety, she might have been captured. Tiolani would execute her out of hand for trying to make away with Phaerie steeds.
If, by some miracle, she was safe, but too far away to communicate with him, he was still far better off than the Horsemistress. Because he had kept his hold on the packhorse, Aelwen’s precious Rosina, he could huddle between the two animals and share their body heat. The roan mare also carried food, but at first Kelon tried to ignore the gnawing in his stomach. It didn’t seem right, somehow, to touch the food in the saddlebags of the packhorse while Aelwen was somewhere out in the woods alone, with nothing to eat. Occasionally he would call out to her in mindspeech, hoping for the comfort of hearing her voice and knowing that she was all right, but there was never any answer. It took a great deal of energy and effort to project mindspeech over any distance, and she was obviously far away from him. The other alternative - that she might not have survived the storm - he simply refused to countenance.
That didn’t stop him from thinking about her, however: how deeply he cared for Aelwen, how long he had lived with the mingled joy and pain of a love that was not returned. He knew that he was very dear to her, that they were the closest of friends, but always she seemed to carry an invisible barrier around herself. Her heart was shrouded in secrets; he knew that she had long carried the shadows of sorrow and loss. Maybe now that they had left the perils and intrigues of Hellorin’s court, and were away from their many responsibilities; now when they only had each other to depend on - maybe now, if they survived, things would be different. He could only keep on hoping, and wait to see what the future would reveal.