Brightly Burning

little dot of light?' he asked, pointing to the mountainside. Lan sighted along his arm and nodded.

'That's the last Karsite post, and it's a wooden fort.' Fedor didn't bother to say anything more; Lan already knew what was needed.

Lan gritted his teeth and steeled himself against what he was about to do to those unsuspecting Karsites in what they thought was a safe shelter. Best to get this over with—

'I can't do this!' In memory, Ilea sobbed in Elenor's arms, the recollection painfully clear in Lan's mind. 'Nothing I've tried is enough! I can't bring back his sight!'

Never again will I hesitate.

The dragon came up in a rush of fury, and flung itself at the proffered target. On the mountainside, a fire-lily flung open hectic petals to the moon.

His mind closed to anything other than the fires, Lan let the dragon have free play. At least they were far enough away that he couldn't hear the screams. Only when there was nothing left to burn did he haul the dragon back to its lair deep within his soul, only partly sated at best.

He opened his eyes, grateful that he could not see the place where the fires had lately raged. Calum and Fedor put their heads together for a moment, then Calum signaled to the rest of them to move forward behind Fedor. He and Wulaf headed up a trail toward the Karsite fortress to make certain that it had been cleared out.

:Steady-on love,: Kalira said soothingly. :You did just fine.: But she didn't say anything about the men in the fortress—and Lan added another load of guilt to the one he was already carrying. Striking without warning, without giving them a chance to surrender or flee... what am I becoming?

Calum and Wulaf rejoined them some while later—it wouldn't have been at all difficult to see their trail, even with only moonlight to guide them. They weren't trying to hide it, after all; this would be the trail that the rest of the army would follow. And it was no odds if Karsites followed it as well; they'd either be met by fire from the scouts, or fire from the army.

At the pace they were setting, it was unlikely that anyone would overtake them anyway.

Lan hadn't intended to sleep in the saddle, but evidently Kalira had already made up her mind about that.

He wasn't riding anymore. In fact, he couldn't remember where he'd been or why he'd been riding. He and Kalira walked slowly and dreamily, side by side but not touching, through a landscape that was too wild to be a garden, but too well-ordered to be wilderness.

Beside him moved a brightness—Kalira—and it seemed to him that she had always looked that way. He wasn't thinking much; his mind was entirely taken up with simply being.

Golden light, thick and sweet, poured down over them. There were no other people here, but this wasn't a place that needed people. The birds, animals, and plants here acted as if they had never seen a human before. And Lan himself felt so entirely swathed in peace and loving warmth that he felt no urgency about anything; for that matter, he couldn't remember if there had ever been any urgency about anything. Perhaps he had always been here, and always would be.

Then he woke, with the sunrise casting long blue shadows across the white faces of the mountains, the peace fleeing from him in a rush. He could have wept like a baby at being thrust back into this world, this horrible war—

Then, although the peace did not return, the love and warmth did, flooding from Kalira into him; and if it did not return him to peace, it did comfort him.

This looked pretty much like every other piece of country that they had passed through, but Calum reined in his horse and looked about with satisfaction.

'Good, we've beaten them here,' the scout leader said. 'Most of you, rest. Lan, start a fire. Tuck, come with Wulaf, Fedor, and me. Let's find a place to put our young friend.'

Lan climbed down from the saddle, feeling nowhere near as tired as the rest looked. While they wearily dismounted, he cobbled together as much deadfall as he could find and set it ablaze; as they gathered around, he and Kalira brought back large branches and logs and piled them on the roaring fire. By his third trip, someone had put water on for tea and broken out the field rations.

He was happy enough to help himself to both, and it wasn't long until Calum returned.

The scout squatted down beside the fire and accepted a mug from one of the others. Lan supplied Fedor and Tuck with food and drink as the scout drained his mug in a single swallow.

'We've got a good spot for you, lad, and just in the nick of time,' Calum told him, passing his mug over for a refill. 'As soon as you get something into you, we'll take you up there and get you settled in. The Karsites will be here in about a candlemark, or so Fedor thinks.'

Calum's casual statement chilled Lan to the bone, though he did his best not to show it. He gulped down his own tea, ignoring his scalded tongue, and bolted his ration bar. 'I'm ready now,' he said, putting on his bravest face.

:That's my Herald,: Kalira crooned as he mounted, and he felt a little glow of pleasure warming the chill of fear.

Dutifully, they followed in Fedor's wake; Calum remained behind to direct the scouts to a place where they, too, could guard the pass. Tuck started to follow, but Fedor waved him back. 'We'll need you here, youngster,' Fedor called over his shoulder as Lan turned to look back. 'Lan's job will be simple enough and he won't need anyone to relay him orders.'

Tuck nodded and dismounted, gratefully accepting a second cup of tea. Lan sighed and faced forward again. He would have liked the company.

:Oh, now, you always have me,: Kalira replied. :Besides, Tuck always feels bad when there's nothing for him to do.:

:That's true enough, love,: he replied, and Fedor motioned to him to come up