« Penderrin tells me that the darkwand will not take you out of the Forbidding. It will only take him and me. No one else.»
Weka Dart snorted. «He is mistaken. Or if not mistaken, he underestimates the power of your magic. You can find a way to take me even if the staff does not wish it.»
She sighed. «I don’t think so. This is old magic, older than I am, and more powerful. The wall of the Forbidding cannot be broken by ordinary means. That is why it was so difficult for Tael Riverine to get his demon into the Four Lands. He had to work a switch to make that happen. You told me so yourself.»
« Perhaps you can switch the Moric back again in exchange for me,” he said brightly.
His enthusiasm was frustrating. «No, I can’t. I don’t know how. I don’t even know how this staff works. It responds to Pen, not to me. What matters is that the Faerie creature who told Pen about the staff was very explicit—it cannot bring anyone out of the Forbidding but us.»
Weka Dart was on his feet in an instant, arms pinwheeling. «But you promised! You said you would take me with you if I got you out of Tael Riverine’s prisons! You said you would! Did you lie? Is it true that all Strakens lie? Even you?»
She held up her hands. «I told you that I would do what I could to help you but that I didn’t even know if I could help myself! That was what I said. It was the truth, not a lie. If Pen hadn’t come with the staff, I couldn’t escape the Forbidding, either. I would be trapped here, as well.»
« Now you won’t be, will you?» he shrieked.
« No.»
« But I will! I will!»
« Not if we can—”
« You lied, you lied, you lied!»
Spitting at Penderrin, as if the situation were his fault, the Ulk Bog rushed out of the shelter, screaming invectives at both of them, and then disappeared into the night. But he was back again within minutes, trudging out of the inky black and flinging himself down where he had been sitting before. For a long time, he didn’t say anything. Grianne waited.
« Who will protect you from dragons, Grianne of the broken promises?» he whispered finally.
He said it with such sadness that it made her throat tighten in response. «There are no dragons in my world,” she answered.
« No dragons?» His head lifted from the cradle of his arms. «Well, who will protect you from the Furies, then? Or the giants, and ogres and Graumths? Who will warn you of their coming? Who will keep you from stumbling into their lairs?»
« There are no Furies, ogres, giants, or Graumths. All of those are here. They were all sent here in the time of Faerie, when the Forbidding was created.» She paused. «My world is nothing like yours, little Ulk
Bog. It is a very different kind of place.»
« Are there Ulk Bogs like me?»
« No. There are no Faerie kind at all, save Elves.»
« I hate Elves,” he muttered. «Elves enslaved the Jarka Ruus.»
« Weka Dart,” she said quietly. «We will try to take you with us, just as I promised. I will keep my word.
I just want you to know that I may not be able to break you free. I may not have the power to do that.»
He was silent a long time. «No Ulk Bogs?»
« No.»
He squirmed around in the dark, shifting positions, trying first one, then another, so restless that she thought there was something wrong with him. «Are you all right?»
« I might not come with you after all,” he said suddenly. «I might stay here. Your world sounds boring. It sounds as if there is nothing to do. I might be better off staying right where I am.»
She stared at him. «I thought you said you couldn’t do that. I thought you said Tael Riverine would kill you if you stayed.»
« He might take me back, now that Hobstull is dead.» Weka Dart’s voice was small and contemplative. «He will need a new Catcher.»
« No!» she said at once. «The Straken Lord will have you killed, Weka Dart! He will find out what you have done and that will be the end of you!»
« He might not. He might think me too valuable now.»
She wanted to shake him so hard his teeth rattled. «If this is a threat meant to get back at me for telling you the truth, for telling you what I thought you had a right to know, then it is a poor one! Don’t be such a fool! You cannot talk about going back to Tael Riverine! Going back is suicide!»
« Or maybe I will go west, where I said I wanted to go when we met.» He shrugged. «Maybe I will go to Huka Flats and find a place where I will be accepted.»
She didn’t know what to say. She wanted him to quit talking the way he was. She wanted to tell him that they would find a way to get him out of the Forbidding. She wanted him to wait until they knew for sure what was going to happen when they used the darkwand. But Weka Dart was already sifting his expectations in his mind, rethinking his life and his plans for the future, accepting better than she, perhaps, the realities.
« Don’t decide anything tonight,” she said to him. «Wait until we have a chance to test the staff. Will you do that?»
He was silent for a long time. «I will sleep on it, Straken Queen. I will give it the thought it deserves.»
« I wouldn’t ask for more than that,” she said.
« I would be a good Catcher for you. Is there was anything to catch over there? Or to protect you from? There must be something.»
« There are enemies,” she assured him. «There are always enemies.»
She watched him lie down and curl into a ball. «I will keep you safe from your enemies,” he said softly. «I will protect you.»
« I know.»
She sat staring out into the night, her thoughts dark and threatening, pushing back her weariness. She should be able to do more for him than what she believed she could. She should be able to help him. But she didn’t know where to start. She didn’t know how to do what was needed. She felt weak and impotent.
« I will be there for you,” he whispered.
Then he said nothing more.
She awoke with the dawn, the silvery tinge of its breaking a faint blush on the eastern horizon. The sky was overcast and the clouds thick and roiling across the Pashanon. A storm was building to the southwest, and there was a screen of rain where it swept eastward out of Huka Flats.
She looked around. Pen was sound asleep at her side, the darkwand cradled in his arms. Weka Dart was nowhere to be found. She took a moment to scan the countryside, but didn’t see him. Apparently, he had left early to scout the pass.
She roused Pen, and after eating the remainder of the roots Weka Dart had provided for their evening meal, they set off. She felt an urgency about doing so, a need to reach their destination quickly. She was aware of how fragile she was. Still unhealed from her experiences at the hands of Tael Riverine, her strength came mostly from the knowledge that she was close to being free of him for good. If she could escape the Forbidding, as well, she might recover herself. If she could put enough distance between herself and what had been done to her, she might be able to shore up her uncertain psyche. The memories would never leave her but, perhaps, she could take the edge off them. She was holding herself together mostly through cobbled–together bits and pieces of determination, stubbornness, and pride. She was still Ard Rhys, but to become anything like whole again, she must regain her hold on the position as well as the title.
She looked around with haunted eyes. The oppressiveness of the world of the Jarka Ruus closed about her. Another day in the Forbidding, and she could not say for certain that she would not give way to the madness that had threatened to claim her ever since her arrival. Time was growing increasingly short for her. She could listen to the sound of its passing in the beating of her heart.