The High Lord

'One of Kariko's allies, no doubt,' Akkarin muttered.

An Ichani, Sonea thought. So soon. We can't face one yet. Akkarin's not strong enough. Her heart was beating too quickly and she felt ill with fear.

'We must move fast now,' Akkarin said. 'He is an hour behind us. We need to increase that distance.'

Remaining in the crouch, he moved along the ridge to where a slab of rock overlapped another, leaving a narrow gap. Slipping through, he straightened and all but ran down the other side of the ridge. Sonea hurried after, somehow keeping her balance despite the stones that shifted and rolled under her boots.

It took all her concentration to keep up with him now. He hurried around boulders, jogged across slopes slippery with rubble, and barely paused before leaping over gaps in their path. Every step tested Sonea's reflexes and balance.

When Akkarin stopped again, in the shadow of an enormous round boulder, she almost stumbled into him. Seeing that he was staring behind again, she turned to search for their pursuer. After a moment, she found him. The man was no farther away, she saw with dismay.

At least he is no closer, she told herself.

'Time to put him off our track,' Akkarin murmured. He walked around the boulder. Sonea caught her breath as she saw the deep crevasse at their feet. It was about twenty strides across where they stood, but widened to form a huge ravine with sheer walls that descended into darkness.

'I will go to the left for about a quarter hour and then to the edge. He'll assume we descended into the ravine. You levitate to the other side, then make your way parallel to the mountains. Keep in the shadows as much as possible, even if it means slowing down.'

She nodded. He turned away and stalked into the night. For a moment she felt a terrible fear of being left alone, but she took a deep breath and pushed it aside.

Standing up, she created a disk of magic and lifted herself into the air. As she moved over the crevasse, she looked down. It was very deep. She fixed her gaze on the other side and moved across. When her feet met solid ground again, she sighed with relief. She had never been afraid of heights, but the drop into the ravine made the tallest buildings in the city look like the steps of the University.

From there, she concentrated on navigating the craggy mountainside. Keeping to the shadows was remarkably easy. The moon was now directly above, but the slope of the mountain had cracked or eroded to form several giant steps. The nearest seemed to be the obvious one to follow, so she descended to the one below.

Keeping to the shadows meant it was harder to see, however. She nearly stumbled into a hole or crevasse more than once. After an endless stretch of leaping and jogging, she glanced up to see that the moon had nearly reached the peaks above.

She felt a stirring of fear again as she realized how much time had passed since Akkarin had left her. She considered what he had said he would do. A quarter hour down the left side of the ravine plus another quarter back to the boulder meant he was half an hour behind her. What if Akkarin had miscalculated? What if the pursuer had been only half an hour behind them, not an hour? Akkarin might have returned to the crevasse at the same time as the Ichani.

She found she had slowed down, and pushed herself onward again. Akkarin wasn't dead. If he'd been captured, he would have called to her, to warn her to keep running. But what if he'd tricked her into leaving him? Don't be ridiculous, she told herself. He wouldn't abandon you to the Ichani.

Unless... unless he had led the pursuer away, knowing that he would be caught and killed, to save her.

She stopped and looked behind. The terrain curved around the mountain, and she could not see far behind her. Sighing, she forced herself to continue on. Don't speculate, she thought. Concentrate.

The words repeated themselves in her mind and became a chant. After a while she found herself silently mouthing them. The rhythm carried her on, from one step to the next. Then she charged around an outcrop and found herself stepping out into an abyss.

Throwing her arms out, she managed to grab the outcrop, swing herself against it, and stop herself falling.

Her heart pounded as she pulled herself back from the brink. An enormous ravine blocked her path. Panting with fright and exertion, she stared at the opposite wall and tried to decide what she should do now. She could levitate across, but while she did she would be in plain sight.

The sound of hurried footsteps close behind her was all the warning she had. She started to turn, but something slammed into her back and a hand clamped over her mouth to smother her scream. She fell forward, over the edge of the precipice.

Then magic surrounded her, and she felt her descent slow. At the same time she recognized a familiar scent.

Akkarin.

His arms held her tightly. They turned in the air and began to rise. The creased and cracked wall of the ravine rushed past, then a larger slash of blackness appeared. They moved into it.

Her feet met an uneven floor and, as Akkarin released her, she staggered and threw out her arms. A hand met a wall, and she managed to regain her balance. She felt lightheaded and giddy, and fought a strange urge to laugh.

'Give me your power.'

Akkarin was a shadow in the darkness, and his voice held both urgency and command. She struggled to regain some control of her breathing.

'Now!' he said urgently. 'The Ichani can sense it. Quickly.'

She held her hands out. His fingers brushed against hers then wrapped around her hands. Closing her eyes, she sent out a steady stream of energy. As the significance of what Akkarin had said sank in, she quickened the flow until power was rushing from her.

'Stop, Sonea.'

She opened her eyes and a wave of exhaustion swept over her.

'You gave too much,' he said. 'You've tired yourself.'

She yawned. 'It's no use to me.'

'No? How are you going to continue on now?' He sighed. 'I could Heal you, I suppose, but... maybe we should stay here. If he had seen where we went, he would have followed us by now. And we haven't slept for days.'

She shivered and looked up. 'He was that close to me.'

'Yes. I took a different path to yours and his, so I could watch him. I noticed how he followed you unerringly, but did not pick up my trail even when I crossed yours several times. Then I got close enough to watch him and I realized from his behavior that he could sense you. So I looked closer, and found I could, too. You are unused to holding extra power, and were allowing a sense of it to slip past your control.'

'Oh.'

'Fortunately, I was able to catch up with you just as you reached this ravine. A moment more, and he would have found you.'

'Oh.'

'You shall sleep here, while I keep watch.'

She sighed with relief. She had been bone-weary before she had given him all her strength. A tiny globe light appeared, revealing that the crack extended a little way into the rock wall. The base was filled with a jumble of large stones. Though Sonea wanted desperately to lie down and sleep, she regarded the floor with dismay.

Finding a relatively even area, she shifted a few of the rocks, filled in a few holes between them with smaller stones, then lay down. It was not very comfortable. She smiled wryly, remembering how she had once slept on the floor of Rothen's spare room so long ago, because she had been unused to soft beds.

Akkarin sat down near the entrance. As his globe light blinked out again, she wondered how she would ever sleep when she knew an Ichani was searching for her above.

But exhaustion blunted the rock's sharp edges and her fear, and her thoughts soon drifted away from all the concerns of the moment.