of being married off on the whim of her father or brother seemed to belong to another person altogether. She was so far removed from that time, so distanced from it by the events of the past few weeks, that it might never have existed.
And might not ever exist again, given her present situation.
She felt a moment of panic and fought to contain it. Uncle Ahren would calm her if he were there. He would tell her not to think beyond the moment, but to confront what frightened her and bring it under control. She tried doing that, isolating the source of her fear and putting it aside. But it was hard to give it a name or even a shape. Her fear was for something too large and too amorphous to define, an overwhelming sense of smallness and weakness and inexperience in the face of a tidal wave of power and dark intent. She might thrash and struggle. She might try whatever she could to break free of its grip. But in the end, it would have her anyway.
« We need to go farther up,” Pen whispered suddenly, clutching at her arm, breaking the chains of the spell.
She gasped at his unexpected touch, caught her breath, then nodded quickly to conceal her shock. «Farther up,” she repeated. She glanced around, surprised to discover that they had reached the top of the stairs. The corridor ahead stretched away into pools of torchlight and layered shadows, the silence as thick as cotton wadding. «Can you show me?»
He pointed diagonally upward into the darkness of the passageway, then looked back at her expectantly, excitement dancing in his eyes. He was enjoying himself. He wasn’t even thinking about the danger—or if he was, he was discounting it in favor of his strong expectations for achieving the quest given him by the King of the Silver River. The realization made her smile inwardly, although she kept her face expressionless as she motioned for him to lead the way.
They walked down the passageway swiftly and silently, listening for voices or footfalls but hearing neither. Khyber was back to worrying about how they would regain the darkwand if they encountered any resistance. She would use her small Druid magic if she was forced to, but stealth and secrecy were better allies for as long as they could call on them for help. If they could get as far as the chambers of the Ard Rhys without being discovered, they had a reasonable chance of getting Pen through to the Forbidding, whether or not he knew how to use the magic of the staff, because such magic would reveal itself when it was time. It was in the nature of most magic to do so, and there was no reason to think it would be any different now.
And plenty of reasons to hope it wouldn’t.
The first corridor turned left into a second corridor, and Pen, leading the way, stopped suddenly. «Khyber!» he hissed.
A pair of Gnome Hunters was coming toward them from out of the mix of light and shadows, spears resting on their shoulders, heads lowered in conversation. Their attentions on each other, they had not yet seen the boy and the Elven girl.
« Keep moving,” she whispered, giving Pen a push. «Don’t say anything when we pass. Keep your head lowered.»
They walked toward the Gnomes at a steady pace, Khyber moving over to place herself between Pen and the guards, shielding him. She looked right through the Gnomes as they passed, a Druid preoccupied with more important things. It had the desired effect. The Gnomes, in turn, looked right through her.
Seconds later, they were alone again.
Pen turned them onto a broad stairway that wound upward into the Keep, and they began to climb. As they did so, the sound of voices reached them for the first time, coming from somewhere above. Khyber took Pen’s arm to keep him moving. Hesitation was the enemy. At the top of the stairs, the corridor divided, one branch continuing on, the other angling left. A pair of Druids stood conversing not a dozen yards away, heads bent close, sharing possession of a book that one held while the other slowly paged through. The two gave Pen and Khyber only a cursory glance, and Pen turned down the corridor that ran left.
« It’s not far now,” he whispered.
Khyber nodded, feeling a renewed sense of trepidation. This would not be as easy as it seemed. There would be guards, probably watching over the darkwand, but certainly warding the sleeping chambers of the Ard Rhys. They would have to get past those guards and do so without a fight. How would they manage that?
There wasn’t time to think it through. They were down the corridor, around a corner, and moving toward several Gnome Hunters stationed at the foot of a narrow staircase leading up into the highest reaches of the Keep. For an instant, Khyber considered turning back, withdrawing to a place where they could talk this through and decide how best to proceed. But it was already too late for that, the Gnomes had seen them coming and were turning toward them.
« The darkwand is up those stairs,” Pen said quietly, sealing their fate, in the chamber of the Ard Rhys.»
Two of the Gnome Hunters moved forward to intercept them, one holding up his hand to slow their approach. «No one is allowed in this part of the Keep,” he rumbled, speaking to them in a fractured Southland dialect.
Khyber stopped in front of him. «Traunt Rowan sent for us.»
The Gnome hesitated. «I wasn’t told.»
« Is he up there?» she asked, gesturing toward the stairs.
« He has gone to bed. Do the same and come back again tomorrow when he is here.»
She shook her head. «I have to leave something for him.» She pointed at the stairs. «Up there.»
Another Gnome drifted over. The three of them were staring at her. The remaining Gnomes were clumped together on the far side of the hall, engaged in their own conversation and not paying much attention to the first group. It was time to act. They could break past these three, she thought. They could gain the stairs before the guards could stop them.
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. That kind of thinking could get them killed.
She gestured at the Gnome. «You can come with me, if you need to make certain of what I will do. Surely you can allow me that?»
The Gnome had shifted his gaze to Pen and was studying him closely. «I don’t know you,” he said. «You’re just a boy, too young to be a Druid. Why do you wear a Druid robe?»
Pen straightened. «I am an apprentice in training. I am nephew to Traunt Rowan himself and not a boy.» He folded his arms across his chest. «I will tell him what you said.»
« Tell him what you like,” the Gnome grunted. He looked back at Khyber. «You can’t go up there. Not tonight. I have my orders.»
She stared at him with an intensity that would have melted iron, knowing she had pushed matters as far as she could, that her only options now were to turn around and go back or try to fight her way through. She glanced at Pen, saw that he was set to fight, put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, and said, «Let’s go.»
She walked him back down the corridor without looking at him, silencing his protests with a quick squeeze of his shoulder, her mind racing. She wasn’t about to give up, not with what was at stake. But she needed a better approach than a straightforward attack on six armed Gnome Hunters.
When she was around the corner and out of their sight, she wheeled on Pen. «Don’t worry, we’re going back. But we need a plan for this. It won’t help if we’re injured or killed—especially you. You’ll have all you can do just to stay alive on the other side.»
« I can manage,” he said.
She gave him a long, hard look. «I have to say this before the time to say anything has run out. What you encounter inside the Forbidding will be much worse than what you’ve encountered here. You will be all alone, and I haven’t any idea how you will protect yourself from the things imprisoned in there. I can help you. I’m not Ahren, but I do have training in the use of Druid magic, enough so that I can be of use. More important, I have the Elfstones. I think you should take me with you.»
He shook his head. «You know I can’t do that.»
« I know youthink you can’t. I know you were told you couldn’t. But maybe we need to test what you were told. The King of the Silver River has misled you more than once. You have already sacrificed yourself in ways that you weren’t expecting. What might you be expected to sacrifice this time? Maybe I can keep that from happening.»
« No, Khyber,” he said firmly. His mouth tightened into a thin line. «If you come with me—if you even can—
