"There is more," Daylan said. "The Torch-bearer knows that it is true, for he too has been reborn upon their world and I have news of great significance. At long last, the Torch-bearer has bound two worlds together."
There were gasps from the Bright Ones. Erringale took a step backward in shock.
"Yes," Daylan said. "You always thought that he would be here when he did it, that he would bind our world to some lesser shadow. But he has bound two worlds together, two worlds rife with power. The binding was flawed, it is true. People died. But he bound two worlds nonetheless. Great magics are at work in these lands, and the enemy has mastered them.
"To our woe, the Torch-bearer has been captured and is now in Despair s hands. He has not had time to fully awaken to his past lives, and so he may not know how to defend himself. He does not know the vast resources of his enemy. Thus Despair hopes to twist him to its purposes."
"He bound two worlds together," Erringale asked, "without the aid of the True Tree? This cannot be."
Talon called out, for she had been present with Fallion Orden when he bound the worlds. "He stood beneath the True Tree when he bound the worlds."
Even Daylan Hammer seemed astonished by this news.
"How can you be sure that it was the Tree?" Erringale asked.
"It was like an oak," Talon replied, "but one of unspeakable beauty. It had bark of gold, and an earthy scent, and it spoke peace to our minds and urged us to be strong, to be gentle and compassionate and perfect in all things!
"I have a leaf from it here in my pack," she recalled. She had picked it up from the ground as a souvenir.
Talon unloaded her pack, then rummaged through it a moment before pulling out a single golden leaf. She rushed up to the three Bright Ones, held it up to their view.
Of all that had been said, this impressed the Bright Ones most. Talon saw their lips trembling and eyes glistening with tears. With great tenderness and respect, the eldest of the bunch took the leaf from her and held it gingerly in his palm, as if it were a treasure beyond words to tell.
"The True Tree has sprung forth," Erringale said, "upon a shadow world?"
The Wizard Sisel cried out, "That is a thing I would like to see!"
Daylan exulted. "There was an Earth King there not long ago. How long has it been since one has walked upon this world? There is rune lore at work there, and the True Tree. The Torch-bearer practices his magics there, and Lord Despair has resorted thither. For countless ages we have waited for the days foretold by the Bright Ones when the True Tree would grow again. Surely the Restoration is upon us! Surely the days long foretold are coming to pass.
"We have brought gifts of blood metal, and with them we can create an army of Ael, as in times of old. We must join forces with our brethren from the shadow worlds and fight-not for your world or their world, but for all worlds!"
Lord Erringale was obviously moved by Daylan s words. He seemed cautious, as if he feared to believe in the long-hoped-for news. He cast a gaze off into the distance, as if listening to a far-off voice. "We must call a council, and your tale will be heard. Enter," Erringale said. "Enter as friends. We have little in way of food and supplies, and so cannot hope to entertain you as we should. But what we have, we will share."
Suddenly the hallway behind him began to glow with a silvery light, beckoning the people to sanctuary.
7
A great leader commands through fear, but at times you may find that it is best to cooperate with others as equals. It is the job of the statesman to inspire greed in others, so that two parties share a common hope for reward.
An arrow whisked past Rhianna s neck with a stinging sound. From the horse-sisters camp down below came cries of alarm, followed by the bleat of a war horn. The horse sisters silken pavilions glowed like gems in the early evening, each lit from inside by bright lanterns, each a different hue-ruby, emerald, sapphire, diamond, and tourmaline.
Warriors boiled from the pavilions, pointing up at Rhianna in the air, and many grabbed their steel war bows, short and broad of wing, and began to let arrows fly.
Some raced to the campfires, lighting arrows and then sending them aloft so that the archers might better see their target. One went soaring just beneath Rhianna.
I d hoped for a warm welcome, she thought, but not that warm.
Other women ran to care for the horses, which were tied outside of camp.
Rhianna flapped madly, rising in the air, to get out of archery range. It seemed the horse-sisters loved her as little as the warlords of Internook had.
The journey from the Courts of Tide had taken nearly all of the evening and part of the night, but it turned out to be easier than Rhianna had imagined. During the day, she had been fighting a slight headwind. But tonight she had a strong following wind, and warm thermals had flowed up from the ground, keeping her aloft. More important, though, she had been driven by great need, and so had denied herself any rest. Thus she had made four hundred miles in only eight hours.
"Sisters," Rhianna cried. "I come in the name of Clan Connal, and I come in peace!"
Perhaps she was too high above them. Perhaps none heard. They certainly could not see her well in the darkness, and the din of war horns and the cries of alarm only grew louder.
Rhianna wheeled above the horses the sisters had, and noticed something strange-hundreds of red blood mounts, a strain of horse bred for its powerful night vision. They were common in Inkarra, but when Rhianna had lived here as a child, they d been so rare that they were almost a myth.
Added to that was another mystery-these horse-sisters were far from home, hundreds of miles east of where they should have been.
Reaching into a pouch at her belt, she grabbed a single forcible, and flapped higher into the air, well out of bow range.
When Rhianna was soaring just above their campfires, she let the forcible drop.
The magical branding iron was not a heavy thing-less than an ounce in weight-and it would probably not hurt someone if it hit them. Her greatest concern was that they would not see it.
The forcible landed in the dirt, and in the darkness Rhianna could not see where it had fallen, but one of the horse-sisters must have heard, for a bow-woman reached down, picked it up, and began to shout excitedly, "Hold your fire! Hold!"
It took a moment for the sisters to calm themselves, and Rhianna merely circled patiently as the camp quieted. "I come in the name of Clan Connal," she cried. "I come in peace. I have forcibles to trade, if you want them."
The women raised a cheer, and dozens of them backed away from the fire, giving her a clear landing site.
Rhianna plummeted from the sky, and then beat her wings hastily as she neared ground. She felt thankful that in the end, her landing was not as clumsy as most.
The horse-sisters peered at her in wonder. "I was born to Clan Connal," Rhianna said. "I am Rhianna Connal, daughter of Erin."
The leader of the horse-sisters stepped forward, a woman in lacquered leather mail, with a small round ornate helm, crusted with precious stones along the brim. Her long red hair flowed loose at the back, and she bore a red lance-the symbol of her ascendancy in the clan.
"I knew a Rhianna Connal as a child," she said suspiciously. "But she did not have wings."
Rhianna wondered how to explain her wings. If the horse-sisters knew that they were a magical artifact, that they could be removed only after Rhianna s death, it might invite someone to hasten her demise. But these were horse-sisters, not some brutish warlords from Internook.