Vulgnash is coming this way out of dumb luck.'
Fallion looked crestfallen.
'Is that true?' Sisel asked. 'Did he choose you?'
Fallion looked around blankly, his face lined with pain. 'I, I don t know. I was unconscious much of the time. I sometimes woke to pain and torture, and I recall seeing Despair standing over me, grinning down at me. But I don t remember him choosing me. I don t recall anything at all. But…'
'What?' Rhianna asked gently.
'A while ago I heard a voice,' he said, 'Despair s voice-or thought that I did.' Fallion looked to the ground. 'I thought I was just hearing things: it was a warning. I was told not to fight. I was told that if I surrendered, Despair would not take vengeance upon you.'
Now there was no doubt in Rhianna s mind that Fallion had been chosen. If I were Lord Despair and I wanted to keep track of a prisoner, I would choose him, she thought. Then Fallion could not escape, could not take his own life, without me being warned.
Daylan turned to Lord Erringale. 'Milord,' he said humbly, 'I beg your help.' He then explained all that was happening-how the Darkling Glories had come to this world, the danger that Fallion was in, and the greater danger that he posed. 'We need sanctuary. I ask that you grant it for a little while, upon your world, if you can.'
Erringale frowned and looked to the ground. In the distance, there was a rumbling and flash of light to the east.
'You propose to hide Fallion upon my world?' Erringale asked.
'Yes,' Daylan answered.
'Won t this false Earth King be able to find him?' Erringale asked. 'How do we know that Fallion won t bring danger to all that love him?'
'It is a chance that we must take,' Daylan said.
'No!' Fallion said vehemently. 'I can t go with you, Daylan. Too many of my people would be made to suffer for my sake.'
'Then what do you want to do?' Rhianna asked. Fallion was the one in pain. She wanted to save him. She would do anything that he asked.
'Send me back,' he said. 'I won t put my friends in jeopardy.'
'You can t go back,' the emir said. 'Despair will continue to torture you. Just when you think that it could get no worse, it will. No one can bear such torment forever. In time, Despair will either drive you mad, or win you and make you his tool.'
Fallion shook his head. 'Having seen Despair, how could I ever consent to become like him?' He looked to Lord Erringale. 'You were there: you know how Despair was formed. The more that Yaleen felt others pain, the more she hated them. But I m different. The more I feel their pain, the more I care for them.'
For once, Talon s thoughts outraced Rhianna s. 'Fallion, if you return to Despair,' Talon said, 'all that you have hoped for will be lost. You will never be able to bind the worlds into one.'
Fallion considered his response thoughtfully. His face was filled with pain and anguish. Despair almost had him. 'How can I hope to bind the worlds now,' he begged, 'after seeing what horrors I have wrought?'
Perhaps I should kill him, Rhianna thought. Despair has already won. I could put him out of his misery.
And if I do, she realized, what will happen to Fallion s Dedicates?
The pains that he now bears will return to them in full-the horror of their mutilations, their grief and terror.
Fallion knows that. He stands between them and their pain. He can t give it back to them.
No true man would, she thought. For then Despair, in his fury and petulance, would subject them to unspeakable horrors.
Rhianna considered the arguments, and she knew that she could not kill Fallion anyway, even to save him from his torment. She was a strong woman, but she didn t have that kind of strength.
'There may be a way,' Erringale suggested to the group, hope rising in his voice, 'to turn the tables on Lord Despair-if we dare try it!'
Erringale looked to Fallion. 'To resist evil, we almost never need to resort to bloodshed. Let me ask, could you teach another how to bind the worlds?'
'Perhaps,' Fallion said uncertainly. 'It would be hard, but I could try. It would have to be a flameweaver of great power, but in time, yes, I think I could teach someone.'
Erringale s eyes shifted, focused upon the emir. 'There is a flameweaver among us, one who has come to help you. Upon your world, his shadow was the greatest flameweaver your kind has ever known, but upon his world he has shunned such power. Fallion, I would like you to meet the shadow of Raj Ahten.'
Fallion peered up at the emir, and his eyes went wide.
Rhianna knew what he was thinking. There was distrust written plainly upon Fallion s face.
'He s a good man,' Talon said. 'He s nothing like the Raj Ahten that our fathers slew. He s risked his life for his people time and time again, proven himself over and over. If there is anyone you can trust with your secret, it is Tuul Ra.'
Fallion shook his head, unconvinced. But he had little in the way of choices.
'The enemy will be here soon,' Lord Erringale said. 'We must be prepared to meet them. Come with me, Fallion, Tuul Ra. Let us prepare.' Lord Erringale nodded toward the hill nearby, covered with oaks and elms.
'We won t have time,' Fallion said. 'It might take days or weeks to teach him what he needs to know.'
'Trust me,' Lord Erringale said. 'You two will have all of the time you need.'
Fallion shook his head. 'I can t walk that far. The pain is too great. Every muscle in my body is cramping.'
'I ll help,' Erringale said, and he went to the wagon and began to help Fallion down.
Rhianna wondered, What is Erringale plotting?
The Wizard Sisel strode forward a pace, his russet robes whispering in the dry grass, and peered north hungrily. So often, Rhianna had seen him with a serene smile on his face. She would have thought that nothing could remove it. But now he glared toward the skyline like one eager to do battle.
'I think that Erringale is right,' the wizard said. 'There are ways to resist evil without resorting to bloodshed. The time has come for me to deal with Vulgnash.'
Vulgnash spotted his prey ahead, saw Fallion standing in a field near the tree line on a wooded hill, miles away.
Fallion was hunched over, arms folded over his stomach, in almost a fetal position. His face was gray and haggard from pain, and his hair was unkempt. The journey had taken its toll on him. He looked weaker than a kitten.
For the past half hour, Vulgnash had had endowments vectored to him-metabolism, sight. Vulgnash s endowments of sight were a marvelous thing. For ages, he d seen all of the world in shades of gray, with an occasional splash of red. He d never seen the world through a human s eyes.
But suddenly he could espy colors that he d never dreamed existed-skies of deepest blue and undiscovered stars of gold glimmering above, powdering the heavens.
He suspected that if he took a human body in the future, he might see colors even more vividly.
Never again, he thought, will I take a wyrmling s body. From now on, when I need to commandeer a new shell, I will always take a human form.
He could see other advantages. It wasn t just the sight. The human fliers, with their smaller weight, were faster than him.
Vulgnash hastened forward, wings flapping in a rush. He heard a throaty grooak, and peered back. The enormous graak had fallen far behind.
I need them not, he thought. The wyrmling warriors had their place. They could bind the prisoners once Vulgnash secured them.
Yet Vulgnash worried about a trap. He saw Fallion waiting in the grass ahead, but not the woman who had rescued him.
Even as he worried about her, she came swooping up over the hill, speeding toward him, faster than any falcon, her wings blurring.
She moved at a frightening pace. Before he realized it, she was overtaking him-two miles out, then one.
