Fallion took her hand, squeezed it tightly, and just peered into her eyes. She was a Runelord now, powerful and beautiful, swift and deadly, with so many endowments of speed that she would never again be able to relate to those in the mortal world.
'You ve saved me,' he whispered. 'Your love has saved me time and again, and if you desire, I will stay.'
In the distance, lightning began to flash brighter, and the sound of thunder was a solid roar. The ground was trembling beneath the soles of the emir s boots. It felt like the end of the world.
A blast of wind struck. The trees that had been sitting in silence all suddenly bent beneath a gale, and the leaves hissed like a distant sea.
'The Darkling Glories are coming,' Fallion said. The emir peered back toward Rugassa; the ring of clouds and lightning was expanding outward in every direction, and he suddenly realized that it was not one vast cloud that covered the crown of the volcano but dozens or hundreds of smaller clouds. Within each, a form moved, a single Darkling Glory. They were separating now, winging away from the volcano in every direction, though a large contingent of them was heading south.
Talon whispered to the emir, 'In my father s time, a single Darkling Glory wreaked great havoc upon an entire kingdom. He was unstoppable. Now we must face an army of them.'
'It s not an army, ' Daylan said. 'It s called a murder — a murder of Darkling Glories.'
'We should hide,' the emir suggested. 'We should get underground.'
'They ll check every building, every tunnel,' Daylan said.
'The Wizard Sisel can hide a warhorse behind a wheat stalk,' Talon offered.
'If you can get to him in time,' Rhianna said.
She looked at Talon and the others.
'We must get our forcibles,' Rhianna said, 'take them with us. Without them, we cannot fight the coming darkness.' She was speaking of the forcibles that she had hidden to the south. It was not far. But to retrieve the forcibles and then reach the True Tree sounded nearly impossible.
The emir looked into Talon s eyes, and knew instantly that they had to try.
Immediately Rhianna grabbed the handles of the wyrmling handcart and raced away. It was all that the emir could do to keep up.
The gale was gaining in intensity, and now the trees shuddered under the impact of blasts of wind, their leaves hissing and branches swaying.
Talon raced at Rhianna s side, glanced back at the darkening sky. 'If they get too close, take Fallion and go.'
Rhianna shot back, 'Run fast enough, and they won t get too close.'
The company charged south a few more miles and entered a familiar town, barren and broken.
With a start, Talon cried, 'The girl! We must get her.'
The emir had nearly forgotten about the child. He peered about blindly, searching the rubble for a sign of the child. He didn t have Talon s many endowments of sight and smell.
Talon raced ahead, veered to the right and dodged into a ruined hovel. She came out with the girl in her arms, the child clinging to her as if Talon was her long lost mother. The little girl was weeping in relief.
In moments, Talon set her in the bed of the wagon, throwing her own tunic over the child as a shield against the night.
What have we saved? the emir wondered, peering over his shoulder at the advancing storm. The Darkling Glories will have us all.
Over hills and through fields they went now, running for what seemed hour after hour, though the moon on the horizon and the stars in the sky moved hardly at all.
The Darkling Glories filled the heavens. The emir imagined that with his endowments, he was running sixty miles per hour. But even on the wing the Darkling Glories could not keep pace. They were falling behind.
Forty or fifty miles per hour, he realized. That is all they are doing. The creatures were flying slowly, searching the ground methodically.
After what seemed to be a run of six hours, they came upon the site of Rhianna s slaughter the day before, and chased off a few wolves they found feasting upon wyrmling carcasses.
'I ll get the forcibles,' Rhianna said. 'Stay here.'
She leapt into the air and sped off, winging to the west. In moments she was lost from sight as she sped just above the treetops.
Every eye in the group kept peering back to the north, toward the flashes of lightning that flickered beneath the starry sky. The company had pulled ahead of the Darkling Glories. But soon the emir knew that the heroes would have to veer east, and then the Darkling Glories would gain on them.
Talon paced about near the handcart watching over the child, who had Fallen asleep. Talon looked like a nervous wreck.
She has never been tested in battle, the emir realized. If she were one of my men, I would go whisper words of encouragement.
He went to her, took her hand. Talon stopped pacing, and her eyes riveted on his.
'The girl is safe now,' the emir said. 'I think she has not slept in days. We ll be all right. Your friend Rhianna will be back soon. She knows how much is resting upon her.'
Talon didn t answer. Instead she threw her arms around him, hugged long and hard.
'This war isn t over, is it?' she said. 'It s hardly begun.'
'No,' he said, unsure what she was getting at. 'It isn t over.'
'You can t give back your endowments. Your people need you. You re as trapped as Fallion is.'
Then he understood what she was saying. She was rejoicing that he was alive, that he would be forced to stay alive for a while longer.
She kissed him, and he held her and kissed her in return. He felt guilty for taking his daughter s endowment, for being forced to keep it. He felt lucky to be alive and to have won Talon s love.
They broke apart for a moment, and the emir caught Fallion watching them.
What does the boy think of me? he wondered. I am an old man, holding and kissing his little sister.
But there was no disapproval in Fallion s eyes, only pain from the torments he suffered. Fallion flashed him a small smile, as if in gratitude.
He spoke something in his own tongue. The emir s few lessons in Rofehavanish were not enough to let him translate.
Talon translated for him, 'He said to me, I have often wondered if there would ever be a man in the world worthy of you. At last you have found love, Little Sister. Congratulations.'
The lightning drew closer, and the mass of darkness beneath the stars was growing uncomfortably close by the time that Rhianna returned, lugging the forcibles-four chests, small but heavy. She had to flap her wings furiously, and sweat was coursing down her face when she landed. She gently laid the forcibles into the back of the handcart.
With the Darkling Glories looming near, there was no time to waste.
The company headed south for another fifteen miles, then Rhianna turned onto an older trail that climbed into the hills, a road that had been built by the folk of Caer Luciare ages ago, and most likely would lead into ruins.
'Are you certain this road goes where we need it to?' Talon asked.
'Yes,' Rhianna replied. 'I saw it from the air.'
So they raced up into the mountains, heading due east for fifteen miles. The Darkling Glories were rushing southward like a storm front, growing ever closer.
But as the company ran east, it became obvious that the vast majority of the Darkling Glories were heading south, following the road.
From the peak of a hill, the companions were able to peer east and see the murder of Darkling Glories now drawing even to their course. There were two or three hundred of the creatures following the highway.
Suddenly the whole flock came to a halt and began diving to the ground, as if to attack something unseen.
'What are they after?' Daylan wondered. 'The horse-sisters?'
The emir wondered.
