« I feel better,” he said.
« Apparently. But how you think you feel doesn’t necessarily reflect how you really are.» She sat down beside him. «Didn’t Bellizen tell you how worried we were? You lied to me about that knife wound. It was much worse than you said.»
« I just wanted to get out of there. I wasn’t thinking about the wound.»
« We almost lost you, Bek.»
He smiled. «You can’t lose me as easy as that.»
« I hope not.» She ran the tip of one finger across his cheek. «Losing you would be too much for me.»
She kissed him again, and he kissed her back, holding her close, even though it hurt both his side and shoulder to do so. When she pulled away, she brushed back her short–cropped hair and shook her head in despair. «You risk too much, Bek Ohmsford. You take too many chances.»
« I must have learned that from you,” he answered, laughing. «Let’s be honest for a moment. Who in the world ever took more chances than you?»
She nodded, conceding the point. «But you feel better, do you?» She held her hand against his forehead for a moment. «Your fever has broken, you’re much cooler. Earlier, you were burning up. And delirious. Thrashing and talking about things none of us could understand. You were dreaming. Or having nightmares. Do you remember any of it?»
« I remember what matters,” he said quietly.
Then he told her of his vision and of the words of the King of the Silver River. He was surprised to see her cry when she learned that Pen was inside the Forbidding. But immediately afterward she was angry and quick to blame Grianne. «If not for her, none of this would be happening.» Their lives were caught up in hers, snared in her Druid machinations and political maneuverings, held prisoner by her web of intrigues and subterfuges. She might not be the Ilse Witch any longer, but as Ard Rhys she inspired the same hostility and enmity. Anyone connected with her, whether by blood or by alliance, suffered as a result.
None of them would ever be free of her entanglements.
Bek tried to reason with her, but there was no doing so while her son was in such terrible danger and her anger so great because of it, so he quickly gave it up, instead turning the discussion a different way.
« You did the right thing by keeping us flying toward Taupo Rough. If the King of the Silver River is to be believed, our chance for helping Pen lies in first finding his companions.»
She frowned at him.«Are we to believe him, Bek? Are we to believe any of those who harbor secrets? We know better than to trust the Druids. Should we trust a creature like the King of the Silver River any farther?»
Bek shrugged. «I think we have to. Pen trusted him.»
« Which put our son inside the Forbidding. You make my point.»
« But maybe we have to extend our trust a little farther in order to get him out again. After all, what other choice do we have? We haven’t another way of reaching Pen.»
« I hate this!» she snapped. «I hate that everything we do is dictated by these secret keepers, Faerie and Druid alike. Everything that has happened is their doing. We are just their pawns!»
He nodded. «I know what we are. But we are thinking pawns, and in the end we will make our own decisions. For now, we have to follow the path we have been put upon and hope that it leads us to where we want to go. That path takes us first to Taupo Rough.»
She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. «All right. Taupo Rough.» She looked out the window at the graying light. «Dusk comes. You’ve been asleep for more than a day, but we traveled on while you slept. We should reach the village before dawn. You should go back to sleep while you can. Or would you like something to eat first?»
He chose to eat, and she sat with him while he did. He was heartened to find that her anger gradually lessened and her mood lightened, and he did not argue with her when she told him to go back to sleep afterward. She kissed him and told him she loved him, and he told her that he loved her, too. It was as much as they needed to say. It was enough to leave things at that.
He slept then, surprised to discover that sleep came again so quickly and easily. He was still sleeping when Rue reappeared to tell him that they were almost at their destination. She helped him sit up and then stand, and when he found he was strong enough to do more, she helped him dress and walked him up on deck. It was night still, but the first tinges of dawn were visible east along the crest of the mountains. The land they sailed through was stark and barren, a vast sweeping plain to the west that climbed into foothills east, which in turn rose to the jagged majesty of the Charnals. Small clumps of trees, tiny silver–web streams, and small lakes that reflected the moonlight brightened an otherwise rocky terrain. Bek knew that country. He had explored it with Rue once upon a time. But few expeditions went that way, and he had not been there in years.
Trefen Morys was at the helm and nodded to him as he climbed into the pilot box. «Good to see you looking well again,” he said.
Bellizen came over from the port railing and joined them, her pale oval face shining with moonlight. «Are we close, Rue?»
Rue Meridian nodded, then said to Bek, «Tell them everything you told me. They need to hear it from you.»
Bek did so, his words floating away from him as he spoke them in the soft rush of the wind, the night air swift and cool, the world vast and dark about their little circle. He covered everything, making certain to include the words of the King of the Silver River that suggested the Ard Rhys was alive and that Pen could reach her.
When he was finished, Bellizen spoke first. «It sounds so impossible. A boy is the only one who can bring the Ard Rhys back? A boy with no magic, no special skills?» She looked quickly at Rue. «I do not doubt his determination, but I do question the reason for the choosing of him.»
« No more than I,” Rue said. «But Bek keeps nothing from us, the secrets for which we seek answers belong to the King of the Silver River. If we wish to discover those answers, we will have to discover them another way. Pen might know some of them. The Ard Rhys might know the rest.»
« We will seek those answers with you,” Trefen Morys assured her quickly. «We will do whatever is necessary to find my mistress. If your son can lead us to her, then we will find him and help him as best we can. But first, it appears, we need to find his companions. Three were named. The Dwarf would be Tagwen. The Rock Troll would be Kermadec. Once, he was Captain of her Guard, and he remains her close friend. Taupo Rough is his home.» He paused. «But who is the Elven girl?»
Bek shook his head. «I wish 1 knew.»
He wished he knew as well why the King of the Silver River had made no mention of Ahren Elessedil. The Druids had said Tagwen had gone to him for help first before going to Penderrin. Shouldn’t there also have been some reference to him?
But he said nothing of his worry to the others.
He stood at the railing and watched the ground sweep away asSwift Sure sped onward along the line of the mountains. Rue took several compass readings and directed Trefen Morys, whom she had allowed to keep the helm. She must have been working with him, Bek thought. The young Druid had no flying skills, no experience with weapons, and he had learned both in a very short time under less–than–ideal circumstances. But he was doing better than many would have.
The sky continued to brighten slowly, the darkness giving way to a silvery wash that gradually turned golden. Ahead, the buildings of a fortified settlement came into view, a village built back against a cliff wall. But there were no fires in the village and no signs of movement. Dark smears dotted the plains fronting the village walls, and the village itself had a ragged, neglected look. As they drew nearer, he saw that sections of the walls had been breached and the greater number of buildings were collapsed and blackened by fire.
« Are we in the right place?» he asked Rue.
She nodded, her face dark with concern. «This is Taupo Rough. Not what we expected, is it? Someone has been here before us.»
Bek did not care to speculate on who that someone might have been. It was possible that the Druids had gotten to the village ahead of them, but the destruction did not look recent. There were no fires burning, no lingering curtains of smoke, no battle smells, nothing to suggest that anything had happened here for days.
They landed the airship at the edge of the walls, and while he stayed at the helm, the other three went down the rope ladder to have a look around. He hated being left behind, but as Rue sensibly pointed out, he was
