Struck dumb, none of them spoke for a breath. Then Skagi muttered, “Pity she couldn’t have managed that feat in the tunnel.”
“That wasn’t magic,” Ashok said quietly, watching Ilvani lean her head against the nightmare’s neck.
“What was it, then?” Skagi said.
“Just what she said,” Ashok told him. “She showed the hag her thoughts, her memories.” He glanced at Cree. “She couldn’t get lost in the storm, because she still lives in that cell.”
Despite their exhaustion and still-bleeding wounds, Vedoran got the group up and moving to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the caves. After an hour with no sign of pursuit, Vedoran stopped at a copse of kindling trees. He leaned against one of them for support.
“We’ll make camp here,” he said.
“Will we be safe?” Chanoch asked.
Vedoran barely regarded him. “We’ll be dead if we go much farther,” he said.
Ashok agreed. “They’re not coming,” he said. “With any luck the hag moved the bog as we left her.”
They made no fire but spent the time seeing to their wounds. Ilvani lay down on the ground with Ashok’s cloak spread out around her and went to sleep.
Skagi snorted when he saw her. “Can’t blame the witch for being sleepy, can you, after that show on the plain?” he said.
“You shouldn’t be so surprised,” Cree said. “She knows as much about magic as Neimal.”
“I know it,” Skagi said. “Her and Natan could rule Ikemmu, if they weren’t odd in the head.” Cree shot him a look, but Skagi just laughed. “Not like it’s a secret,” he said. “Even Uwan knows.”
“Why is she like that?” Ashok asked. He watched Ilvani sleeping. “Did something happen to her?”
Skagi shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure, but most think it’s because of the family,” he said.
Ashok remembered Vedoran telling him that Natan and Ilvani’s lineage was valuable to Ikemmu.
“They’re all dead now,” Cree spoke up, “not that there were many to begin with. Skagi’s right-the story’s well known. When the first shadar-kai came to Ikemmu, they didn’t find the city deserted. There were two shadar-kai living in the ruins, a feral man and woman. The woman was heavy with child.”
“Who were they?” Ashok said.
“No-names. They couldn’t speak any language the shadar-kai knew,” Cree said. “The man attacked the shadar-kai on sight and was killed. The woman died giving birth to a son.”
“But the child lived,” Skagi said. “Stories say he grew up half again as feral as his father, got a child on a woman before leaving the city for gods know where. Never saw him again, but the woman carried her burden and gave birth to twins.”
“Natan and Ilvani,” Ashok said, understanding. “The third generation.”
“Raised by the mother in Ikemmu,” Cree said. “She saw them grown before she died on a raid to the Underdark side. They weren’t wild like their father and grandfather, but Ilvani obviously inherited some of their strangeness. Some say”-he hesitated-“you never know what to believe, but I suppose it’s possible that those who lived in Ikemmu before the shadar-kai may have shared their city with Natan and Ilvani’s grandparents. They may have witnessed whatever disaster befell the city.”
“How could they have survived, when so many others didn’t?” Ashok said.
“We don’t know that all or any perished,” Cree said. “If they were Tempus’s servants, he could have spirited them away and protected the shadar-kai who remained. Either way, Ikemmu looks on Natan and Ilvani with great pride. They believe the twins are favored children of Tempus.”
“Except Ilvani’s as unpredictable as a dust storm, and after what she’s been through it’ll probably be worse,” Skagi said.
Chanoch, who’d been listening quietly, said, “She’ll be fine once we get her back to Ikemmu. We’ll all be fine once we’re home. What say you, Ashok?”
Ashok nodded absently. “Yes, home.”
“Get some rest, all of you,” Vedoran said from across the camp. “I’ll take first watch and wake Skagi after.”
The conversation broke up, and Ashok went to Vedoran.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take first watch?” Ashok said. “You look like death.”
Vedoran shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Sleep while you can.” He glanced behind him to where the nightmare hovered at the edge of the camp. “Is the beast going to stay with us?”
“I don’t know,” Ashok said. “Right now, we’re not strong enough to deny him, if that’s what he wants.”
Vedoran grunted. “Sleep then. Let him help stand the watch.”
“Very well,” Ashok said, taking a dust-covered blanket out of his pack and spreading it on the ground.
When he slept, he dreamt of fire.
Neimal, the Sworn of the wall, saw them coming first. Her farsight stretched many miles across the plain, and she recognized the five, the nightmare, and the witch.
Gasping, Neimal sent her thoughts soaring across the city and up to the summit of Tower Athanon, where they connected one by one with the other Sworn. Thus linked, her voice touched them all, and wherever they were, whatever business they conducted, all paused to heed her mind voice.
Together, they touched Uwan, their leader, and pressed for the Watching Blade’s attention. After a breath, his answer came.
“What do you see?” he demanded of the witch on the wall.
“They’ve returned,” Neimal told him.
Uwan felt her agitated state through the link. “Did they bring back the missing?” he asked.
“One,” Neimal said. There was an ache in her mind voice of both pain and joy. “Ilvani comes home, but without her flock.”
In his chamber deep within Tower Athanon, Uwan closed his eyes, and with Neimal’s magic he reached for Natan.
“She’s alive,” he said.
Natan’s answer came not in words, but as a swell of joy he’d never felt from the cleric before.
“Praise Tempus,” Uwan said.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The portal opened for them while they were still a quarter mile out. At that point the nightmare broke away from the group and galloped off across the plain. Ashok was not surprised, nor did he expect that would be the last time he saw the beast. They were connected, as Vedoran had observed.
Blood attracts blood, Ashok thought. When he lost himself to rage, the nightmare would be there, if only in his thoughts and dreams.
A crowd of shadar-kai had gathered by the time they crossed into the city, and the air trembled with celebration as the warriors surged forward to greet them.
“Ashok! Praise Tempus!”
“The emissary has returned!”
The crowd converged on them and splintered the party. People plucked at Ashok’s clothing and hair and that of the others, slapping them on the back or simply chanting their names.
He heard his own loudest of all.
Stunned, Ashok let the crowd carry him along toward the towers. He sought Vedoran to ask if such a reception was normal for a victorious mission, but he could not find him in the crowd. The others were with him but scattered. Chanoch accepted the praise and greetings with pleasure, but Skagi and Cree looked as baffled as Ashok felt at the attention, and when he could get close enough to ask them about it, Cree shook his head.
“We celebrate at the return of a successful raiding party, but this”-he surveyed the wild crowd-“is something different.”
“They’re showering you with kisses though, aren’t they?” Skagi said, nudging Ashok with his shoulder.
Cree looked around. “Where’s Vedoran gone?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Ashok said. “I lost him in the crowd.” Ilvani was missing too. Ashok felt a surge of distress. He shoved through the crowd of men and women, but they only called his name louder. “We’re all separated,” he said.
“Ah well, enjoy it,” Skagi said, clapping him on the back. “We wouldn’t be here without you. Hail Ashok, warrior of Tempus!’ he cried, and the crowd took up the chant.