Aedan winced with pain as his left leg cramped so badly that he could not take another step. He stumbled to a halt and supported himself painfully against a tree trunk. It was no use. He would never make it.
Go, Michael, he thought. Go, run for it!
In the distance, he heard the howling of the wolves as they picked up their trail. It felt as if a giant fist had suddenly started squeezing his gut. It was all for nothing. But maybe not. There was still a chance he could buy Michael some time. At least he would give his life in the service of his prince. Perhaps it would compensate for his dereliction of his duty in his affair with Laera. It was certainly no more than he deserved for having acted like a fool.
There was a sudden rustling ahead of him and he straightened, breathing heavily, prepared to meet whatever new threat could be facing hiirn, but it was only Michael. He had doubled back.
“Run!” Aedan shouted at him. “They have discovered our escape! Run for your LIFE! I will try to hold them off as long as I can.”
“With what?” asked Michael. “Don’t be stupid.
Come on!”
“I can’t,” said Aedan, wincing with pain. “My legs
…cramped…. I can’t go on. Save yourself.”
“I am not going to leave you,” Michael said. ‘Now come on, Aedan, lean on me….”
“Forget about me! I’ll only slow you down!”
“We go together or not at all,” insisted Michael, taking his arm and putting it around his small shoulders. “Now lean on me. Come on, you can do it!”
“It’s no use. We’ll never make it. You must go on without me.”
“Shut up and move!” said Michael.
They started off at an awkward, shambling trot, with Aedan leaning on Michael for support, but he knew it was hopeless. The stream was still at least a mile or two away. The wolves would catch them long before they reached it.
“Michael … please. .
“Shut up and run, Aedan,” Michael said, through gritted teeth.
“I can’t. The pain..
“Forget the pain. Pain is only a sensation.”
If their situation hadn’t been so desperate, Aedan would have laughed at the sheer lunacy of such a statement. And yet, somehow, it helped.
He grimly set his teeth and increased his pace, trying not to lean too hard on Michael, who barely came up to his chest. The howling had stopped now, but that was only more ominous. It meant the wolves were on the stalk. They would be gliding almost soundlessly through the forest, following their scent, their jaws agape, their tongues lolling, goblin riders on their backs. Death was racing toward them on padded paws. They would undoubtedly spare Michael, at least for a time, but they did not need Aedan and there was no question in his mind he would be killed as an object lesson to the prince to prevent further escape attempts. If only Michael hadn’t stopped….
He thought he could hear faint rustling sounds behind them, but he wasn’t sure. They were no longer trying to move quietly. There was no longer any point. They were trying to move as quickly as possible, but even if they could run at full speed, it still would not be good enough.
It would take nothing less than a miracle to save them now.
Haelyn, help us! Aedan thought. Don’t let it end like this! If not me, at least save Michael.
t They came to a small clearing, overgrown with a carpet of moss and lacy ferns, strangely illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the trees. Aedan did not remember their passing this way before. He thought they were headed back roughly the way they came, but he was no longer sure of anything except that they would never reach the stream.
He cursed himself for not being stronger and having more endurance, for having succumbed to Laera’s charms, for having failed his prince.
If Michael had not stopped to help him, he might have made it and the wolves would have lost his scent as he splashed through the shallow water, following the streambed for a distance before jumping out on the opposite bank and heading back the way they came. The goblins would know, of course, which way he was headed, but the forest was thick, and there was a chance he might have been able to elude them, or meet a rescue party, if one had been sent out…. In any event, it was all pointless speculation now. They had tried, and they had failed, and Aedan knew it had been all because of him. They began to cross the clearing, but before they could get more than a dozen yards, a low growling froze them in their tracks.
A pair of lambent eyes appeared in the darkness ahead of them. And then another. And still another.
Aedan’s heart sank. The wolfriders. The wolves had not only caught up to them, they had passed them, and now they stood surrounded, in the center of the clearing, the threatening
