All of it —and choose the way of the sky god after all. Lanen was a good person. With just a portion of that power I had kept her and her children alive and healthy.
What is the point of being the Death of the World in any case?
There's never anyone around to see you succeed.
By the time we camped the second night I had come to my own peace with what had happened, but I appeared to be in the minority. Will volunteered to take the first watch and we let him; anyone could see he had no chance of sleeping. Lanen and Varien weren't far behind. Only Rella and Jamie seemed to sleep well that night. I wondered if anyone's conscience could be that clear.
Aral had come and sat beside me when the fire was starting to die down. "Vil, I know you feel it," she said softly. "What in all the Hells is going on?"
"If I knew that I'd do my damnedest to do something about it so I could get some rest," I replied. "I've been trying to ignore the lot of you for hours now. You are a dear friend, Aral, but please, I haven't recovered yet from that healing session." It was a polite lie, but still it was better than simply asking her to go away. She raised an eyebrow at me, expressed dubious sympathy and left.
I lay down and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the atmosphere. Ever try to sleep through a night filled with a wildly raging wind? It was much the same thing.
Dawn couldn't come too soon. I had managed a few hours' sleep at the tail end of the night, but I woke feeling more weary than when I went to sleep and Varien wasn't much better. The misty grey morning didn't help any of us— we all woke slightly damp and a lot colder than we had been. Will had kept the fire going all night, which was a blessing. I wondered how he managed—he said he hadn't had a wink of sleep but he seemed more alert than the rest of us.
Oh—except for the old campaigners. Rella woke with her usual stiff back, which Jamie was learning to loosen; he said his side was paining him, but I caught his eye. "You're just out for any sympathy going," I said, laughing at him over my second mug of chelan.
"You know me too well," he said, stretching. "Next time I'm leaving you behind."
I would have kept on teasing him but to my astonishment Idai's voice interrupted me. "Varien? Lanen? May I bespeak you?"
"Of course, Idai," replied Varien, who had taken to wearing his circlet at all times. "What is the trouble I hear in your thoughts?"
"Have you heard from Hadreshikrar?" she asked, and now even I could hear the concern in her mind-voice. "I bespoke him just now and I heard him begin to respond, but after that came only silence."
"I have heard nothing, Lady," said Varien. I was staring at him, completely confused, but he took my hand and muttered aloud, "Not now, I will tell you in a moment."
"I take it you fear for him," he added in truespeech.
"He should have been there by now, Akhor," said Idai. I managed to keep back a yelp, but not very well. Fortunately, Idai heard nothing but Varien's voice reassuring her. "We will find him if we can, Lady," he said. "Shikrar has not called to us either—perhaps he rests after his journey?"
"That might be, Akhor, but I like it not that I cannot hear him. I pray you, take the time to find him, and rouse him if you can."
"We will do what we can," said Varien. He winced, and I realised that his head must be throbbing now with the pain of traespeech. It seemed worse for him at the moment than it was for me, and I found it hard enough.
"We thank you, Lady, for letting us know your concern. Let us all seek him and who finds him first tell the others," I said, and released the link as she agreed.
Varien took off the circlet and rubbed his temples, grimacing.
I just stared at him. Eventually he looked up at me. "What do you—ah," he said.
"Ah, indeed," I said, not knowing whether to be amused or annoyed or delighted. "How long have you known that Shikrar was on his way here?"
I gathered from the subdued spluttering noises that Rella had overheard.
"I have only known that for—ah—Lanen, in my fear for your safety I have neglected to tell you—a great deal has been happening among the Kantri of late," he ended lamely, looking for all the world like a small child who has forgotten to carry out its mother's errand. "Lanen—perhaps you should sit down." He smiled then, almost a mischievous grin. "It is a truth and it is most definitely spiky. In fact, it is also horned, tailed and taloned, and it is not he, it is they."
"They?" I asked weakly. "They who?"
Not to be outdone, Rella moved up to join us and added swiftly, "They who what?"
"They who will arrive here in Kolmar in a short time, although I know not precisely when. If Idai is correct, Shikrar should be here already."
"Who are they?' I all but shouted.
"The Kantri," he said, almost as if he did not believe it himself. "The Kantrishakrim, my people of old. They are coming here. The Dragon Isle, as you call it, is overrun with fire and ash and would have killed them all if they had stayed. There is nowhere else for them to go. They are coming here. The Kantri are coming to Kolmar."
I would have bet that six people could not stand silent that long for anything, and I would have lost.
When I could breathe again I laughed, long and loud. One of the Healers sent what I suspect was a treatment for shock to all of us, but I kept laughing.
"Either tell us what's so funny or stop cackling like an old hen," said Jamie dryly.
"Berys—it's Berys," I gasped out. "Oh, Lady, I'd give a year's wages to see his face when he finds out!" The others waited. "Don't you see?" I said, "He's got all his hopes pinned on his demons, that's the one thing he has that almost no one can challenge, and now—hahaha!—oh, now the creatures who can get rid of the damned things with a breath are coming here and there's nothing he can do about it! Oh, it's wonderful!"
Well, that seemed to cheer everyone up. I kept laughing on and off for an hour or so, while we got moving. Trust Varien to forget to mention it to anyone!
Seems my friend Shikrar was going to be the first to arrive. I had spent more time with his son Kedra than with him, but I respected Shikrar. He was a fair soul. The only problem was that he was a fair soul in an absolutely huge body. He was half again the size of his son. He had been fine on the Dragon Isle, but I was having a hard time imagining him in Kolmar. He seemed to be made to a different scale entirely. Still, see him in Kolmar I would, if they could find him. According to Lanen and Varien there was no sign yet.
The cloudy morning brought in a sunny day, like the old songs say. I was glad of it as well, my bones aren't as young as they used to be and the cold was getting into them. Still, I walked rather man rode all morning as we went higher and higher. It was getting colder, and the air a bit thinner too, when Will pointed up ahead and said, "At last! That's the entrance to the high field."
"Not a minute too soon, I'm starved," said Lanen cheerfully. "But where, Will? I don't see any entrance, just more rocks."
He grinned at her. "That's the beauty of it. Unless you know it's here you'd never find it—follow me." He mounted one of the horses and went on a little ahead, and before our eyes he seemed to disappear into the rocks. I thought it would be easier to see the entrance as we came closer, but until we were right on top of it you'd have sworn there was nothing there but stubborn rock. We went in, one by one, leading the horses between us—it was a narrow entrance— and found ourselves in a great round green field surrounded by high rock. At the end farthest from the entrance and a bit to the left there was a small wood, but it was half hidden by one of the two spurs of black rock mat curved down from the high walls into the green grass. They almost looked like great ramps, dwindling swiftly to nothing from the great height of their origins in the cliffs and mingling with the ground.