battered spirits sink at the prospect. She wanted out of this miserable place, out of this world of savagery and despair. She pondered on the words of Brona's shade. A boy is coming. The pronouncement confounded her, no matter how often she repeated the words in her mind. What boy? Why a boy in the first place? It made no sense to her, and she kept thinking that it must be a puzzle of some sort, the secret to which she must find a way to unlock. Shades were famous for speaking in riddles, for teasing with half–truths.
Perhaps that was what had happened here.
She stopped for a moment and closed her eyes, feeling dizzy and weak. Her encounter with the Warlock Lord's shade had left her battered of mind and body, light–headed and unsteady. She could feel an aching not only in her muscles and joints, but also in her heart. Just standing in the presence of the shade had left her sickened. Its poison had permeated the air she breathed and the ground she walked. It had infused the entire valley, though she had not been aware of it until now.
Evil—in its rawest, most lethal form—had infected her. Though she had resisted the Warlock Lord's offer to embrace it, it had claimed her anyway. She wouldn't die from it, she thought, but she would be a long time ridding herself of its feel.
The dizziness passed, and she walked on. A boy, she kept thinking. And she must wait for him. She could do nothing from this end, nothing that would set her free. She did not believe it; there was always something you could do to help yourself in any situation. There was always more than one way in or out of any place, even this one. She need only find what it was. But even as she told herself it was so, she found reason to doubt the words. No one—until now—had ever found a way out of the Forbidding, not after thousands of years. No one had ever found a way in, once the wall of magic was set in place. It was a prison that did not allow for escape.
It was light by the time she reached the base of the mountains: the same sooty gray light that seemed to mark every day, the clouds slung low against the earth, fused with mist and darkened by the threat of rain. Weka Dart was sitting on a rock at the trailhead, chin in his hands, looking south across the flats, but he leapt to his feet on hearing her approach and was waiting eagerly as she came up to him.
«I thought you weren't coming back, Straken,' he announced, not bothering to hide the relief in his voice. «That shade, so terrible, so threatening! It didn't want you?»
She shook her head. «Nor you, so you needn't have run away.»
He bristled with indignation. «I didn't run! I chose to wait for you here!» His cunning features tightened as he prepared to lie. «I realized that you could not afford to be disturbed during your summoning and decided to come back down here to keep watch against … whatever might intrude.» He spit. «It worked, didn't it? Were you bothered in any way? Hah! I thought as much!»
She almost laughed. The truth wasn't in the little Ulk Bog, but she didn't find herself angry or even disappointed. It was simply his nature, and there was no point in hoping for anything else. Candor was not a quality she was likely to see much of in Weka Dart.
«If I had thought you needed protection from that shade, if I had not believed you to be a Straken of great power and experience, I would have stayed to see that you were kept safe!» he continued hurriedly, clearly not knowing when to stop.
«But since there was no reason for worry, I came down here, where I knew I could be of more use to you. Tell me. What shade was it you spoke with?»
She sighed. «A warlock of immense power.»
«But its power was no greater than yours or you would not have dared summon it. What did it tell you?»
She sat down next to him. «It told me I must go back to where you found me.»
Instantly, his demeanor changed. «No, no!» he insisted at once. «You mustn't go back there!»
She stared at him in surprise. His distress was reflected on his rough features, revealed by the way the furrows on his brow deepened and knotted and his mouth tightened.
He seemed to realize he had overreacted. «What I mean to say is that you've already barely escaped a Dracha. What reason would you have to risk another encounter? I thought we had decided we would go to … I thought …»
He trailed off. «What did we decide, exactly? Why did we come here? You never said.»
She nodded, amused by his confusion as much as troubled by his distress. «We came here so that I could speak with a shade, Weka Dart. I was not given a choice as to which one.»
The Ulk Bog nodded eagerly. «But you did speak with one. What did you ask it? Why did it tell you to go back to where you had come from? What was its reason for doing so? It must be trying to trick you, perhaps to see you hurt!»
She considered her answer carefully. «I don't think it wants me hurt. Not in the way you suggest. What I asked was how to find my way home again.»
Weka Dart bounded up from the rock to face her. «But you won't find your home from there! You were lost already when I found you! Anyway, that place is too dangerous! There are dragons everywhere, some worse than that Dracha you encountered!»
He was practically jumping up and down now, his hands balled into fists. «Why do you have to go back there to find your way home? Can't you find it somewhere else?»
She shook her head, watching him carefully. «No, I can't. Why are you so upset? Are you frightened for yourself? If so, don't come with me. I can find my own way. Go west, where you were headed when you met me.»
«I don't want to go west!» He practically screamed the words at her. «I want to stay with you!»
«Well, if you want to stay with me, you have to go back to where you found me. What's wrong with you? Are you afraid I can't protect you from those hunting you? Is that what this is about?»
He flew at her in a rage, catching himself just before he got within reach, wheeling away again, then stamping the earth with both feet until she thought he was in danger of breaking his legs. «Aren't you listening to me?» he screamed at her.
«Don't you believe me? You can't go back there!»
She came to her feet, ready for another attack. «Are you coming with me or not? Make up your mind.»
He hissed at her like a snake, his face twisted into a grotesque mask, and his fingers extended like claws. She was so astounded by the transformation that for a moment she thought she had better summon the magic and immobilize him before he lost all control. But then he seemed to get hold of himself, going suddenly still so that he was frozen in his bizarrely aggressive pose. He took a deep breath, blew it out, wrenched his fiery gaze away from her and directed it out onto the flats.
«Do what you want, Grianne of the foolish heart,' he said quietly. «Go to whatever doom awaits you, whatever fate. But I will not be caught up in the net, as well. No, I will not come with you.»
Without another word, he stalked away, moving off at a rapid pace, no longer darting from side to side as he had done all the way there, but proceeding straight ahead, south into the Pashanon. She watched him incredulously, not quite believing he was giving up so easily, certain he would turn around and come back after he had gotten far enough away to make his point.
But he did not turn around or come back. He kept walking, and she kept watching him until he was out of sight.
* * *
She found a stream from which to drink, then began retracing her steps west. She was near exhaustion from her encounter with the shade of Brona, but she didn't think she should try to sleep until she reached less open country. She was hungry, as well, but as usual there was no food to be found. She thought she might find some ground roots when she reached the forests again, but there was no way to be certain. Grudgingly, she admitted that having Weka Dart along would have solved the problem, but the Ulk Bog just wasn't worth the trouble. It wasn't entirely his fault, of course. He couldn't understand what she was trying to do, and that frustrated him. It was better that he was gone, even if she was hungry.
Nevertheless, she couldn't help wondering at his extreme reluctance to return to where he had found her. He was adamant about avoiding that place, and she thought there was more to it than his fear of encountering the tribal members he had fled. Something else was going on, something he was keeping to himself. Had she wanted to, she could have used her magic to force it out of him, but she no longer did things like that just to satisfy her
