First Comes The One Who Wanders (74 page)

"If we're ready?" asked Kai. Leilas nodded and the elven maiden led them to the edge of the clearing. They’d walked only a few steps into the dense underbrush when all sight of Nereid was gone.

The path Kai was following was narrow and they hiked in single file. Kai first, then Leilas and Garabaldi, Erion guarded the rear. Kalin had said the journey would be dangerous. Leilas wondered what sort of danger. Looking back, she tried to gain Erion’s attention, but he was busy talking to Garabaldi.

"Kai," she called to the elf maiden.

"Yes, my lady?" replied Kai. Leilas’ eyebrows went up in surprise. This was the first time Kai had ever called her that.

"Your father spoke of dangers. What are we supposed to be on guard against?"

Kai tried not to look at her as though she were stupid, but she didn’t quite succeed. "There are many animals here that can kill," she said, "as well as holes in the earth that don’t look like holes. There are many dark folk who live in this place. They’re all dangerous."

"I see," said Leilas, looking around intently for unseen enemies.

"When we reach the mountain," continued Kai. "The path is steep and unstable. Though elves can travel it safely, it will be more difficult for you. Plus, we don’t know what the Dark One has planned to stop you."

Leilas nodded and fell back into line. She hadn’t really thought about what Rengailai and Dredrac might have planned to stop her. But if Sylph had planned from the beginning then so did the others. She set her jaw in determination and plunged on through the thick foliage of the forest behind Kai. It wasn’t long before she was hot and tired and gasping for what little air there was in the thick undergrowth. She would have loved to stop and rest for a few minutes, but Kai didn’t stop. Leilas wiped the sweat out of her eyes, and pressed on. Garabaldi was muttering under his breath about the heat, but didn’t voice his protests too loudly. It was Erion who called to Kai to stop when they passed a small pool.

Leilas dropped her pack to the ground and stretched her sore muscles. Garabaldi knelt and began to drink greedily. Only her experience in the forests of Crogmanland kept Leilas from joining him. After Kai bent down to drink, Leilas fell to her knees and drank deeply. Kai and Erion moved off a bit and began to talk in low voices while Leilas and Garabaldi finished drinking and cooling themselves with the water from the pond.

Not quite sure what emotion was running through her, Leilas re-shouldered her pack and waited for Kai to lead on through the forest. She’d been traveling with Erion for almost two years. He was her friend and companion. She definitely didn’t like sharing him with another woman. Berating herself silently for her stupidity, Leilas trudged on behind Kai.

They stopped when the deep shadows darkened into evening. Leilas dropped her pack and began searching for anything that might make good fuel for the fire. Kai stopped her. "It would be better if Erion and I ventured into the wood. You’ll be safer if you stay here."

Feeling like she’d been relegated to the role of a child, Leilas shrugged and found a spot to rest against a rock. Garabaldi came to sit next to her. "You’ve grown fond of your elf, I think," he said quietly.

"He’s my friend," replied Leilas.

Garabaldi cocked his head as if listening. "The first real friend you’ve had, who wasn’t a master,” he said at last. "That makes the picture clearer."

"Does it?" asked Leilas, sarcastically.

"Elves can be irritatingly superior, can’t they?" asked Garabaldi, conversationally.

"It’s just their way," said Leilas, grudgingly.

"So it is," replied Garabaldi, finding some lichen and munching on it, contentedly. "First good thing I’ve had to eat in days," he said, with a mouthful of the green fungus. Leilas shook her head at him in disgust and opened her pack to find the food the elves had provided. She sat munching on a piece of jerked venison, as she waited for the others to return.

They returned as she finished the venison, carrying armfuls of sticks and branches. In almost no time, they had a fire going and Kai was brewing something that smelled wonderful. "It is called coi-ya," she replied to Leilas’ question. "It will help with the sore muscles and sleep."

Garabaldi refused to have any, saying the lichen would do him more good than her herbs. Leilas took the drink and tasted it tentatively. It tasted as good as it smelled, so she quickly drained the last of it from her cup. "How much farther to the mountain?" she asked, starting to feel comfortable and sleepy.

"We’ll reach the base tomorrow," replied Kai. "Then the difficult part will begin."

Leilas had to wonder how much more difficult it could be than trudging through foliage so thick you couldn’t find a way through. Closing her eyes, she was quickly asleep.

~~~

"I always expected to make this trip with Solein’s Warrior," said Kai, looking into the fire. "Not with a child who’s barely seen twenty years."

"Yet, Sylph sent her for you to guide and protect," replied Erion.

"I’ll do my duty," said Kai. "I’ll take her to the opening of Solein’s temple and wait for further instructions."

"Your clan believes this is a great honor," said Erion softly. "But you don’t believe that to be true, do you?"

"They say honor, but I was given the task because my father wouldn’t ask anyone else to do it. I didn’t ask to be named and would have gladly given the honor to another. But my father required it of me. I wouldn’t tell him no," said Kai, bitterly. “But it isn’t a duty I bear gladly.”

"Why?" asked Erion.

"Because I believe I’ll die on this journey. I’m not strong enough to protect the Chidra from what’s coming."

"We all feel that way. All those who’ve had the honor and duty of protecting her. Leilas herself feels as though she’s not worthy or capable of being the Chidra. If we thought we were worthy, that’s when I would begin to doubt if we were."

"You speak wisely, Erion," said Kai. "I’ll try to remember your advice." She sat silently, her head cocked as she listened to the distant cry of a forest animal. "Why doesn’t she like me?" she asked after a long silence.

Erion moved closer to Kai and put his arm around her shoulder. "Give her time. She’s had a hard life and doesn’t make friends easily."

"I’ll give her what time I have," replied Kai, laying her head on Erion’s shoulder.

~~~

"Betwa," said Kai, as she took yet another detour off the almost non-existent road.

Leilas looked to see what "betwa" meant. In a distant tree, almost hidden from her view, Leilas saw the large, constricting snake hanging down like a vine. Better the tangle of underbrush than to be dinner for the giant snake, she agreed silently. It was the fifth time Kai had led them off the trail to avoid danger. So far, it had only been the non-human kind of danger. They only had two more pieces of the staff to collect. Leilas believed there had to be some sort of trap ahead.

They’d been traveling at a steady clip for most of the day, stopping only briefly for water and food. If there was a mountain in front of them as Kai kept claiming there was, Leilas couldn’t see it. All she could see were broad leaves covering the path forward. Her clothes were wet with sweat and the insects were about to drive her insane. Garabaldi was dealing with the insects by muttering under his breath about how nice, cool and dark the caves were in Crysalis. Erion and Kai didn’t seem to notice the adverse conditions. Kai still looked fresh and beautiful, thought Leilas, while I look like a wet rag. She didn’t know why it bothered her. No one was here to see her except Garabaldi and Erion, and Erion had seen her look worse.

Shaking herself mentally, she told herself to get a grip on her emotions. She didn’t need to be distracted by Kai and the elf had given her no reason to dislike her. Resolving to do her best to be nicer, she pushed a branch aside and followed Kai down the trail. "Please tell me the mountain is better than this," said Leilas to Kai at last, stopping to wipe the sweat out of her eyes and catch her breath. For two days, she’d felt like she was breathing underwater. Kai looked back at her, startled. Leilas realized this was the first time all day she’d addressed Kai personally.

"The air is better on the mountain," replied Kai, seriously. "But the trail isn’t as good."

"Not as good?" asked Leilas, disbelievingly. "This isn’t even a trail. How much worse could it be?"

Kai looked disconcerted, her eyes darting back to Erion for help. "This looks like a highway to an elf, my lady," he said with a smile.

Leilas groaned and wiped her face again. "Nothing could be worse than this."

"Never say never, my dear," said Garabaldi, with a cackle. "There are a thousand things I can think of worse than this, and that was without trying."

"Right. But the things you think are worse, I might think are better," muttered Leilas, wiping at the continuous sweat again and pushing on with determination.

It was with relief that Leilas dropped her pack to the ground and followed it down, when Kai indicated this was where they would spend the night. She didn’t bother offering to go collect wood for the fire, find fresh meat or vegetables. That was Kai’s job, at least according to the elf. Leilas didn’t mind not having to go in search of food. She just didn’t like being dismissed as unable. She watched as Garabaldi found some fresh lichen and began munching hungrily.

"How did you get entangled in all of this, Garabaldi?" she asked the question that’d been teasing at that back of her mind for days.

"I was called by Anhj and Crog to ensure that their pieces of the staff remained safe until they were needed. Then I was to help the Chosen One to accomplish her task. Did you think only creatures of the light were interested in restoring the balance?"

"I thought most dark creatures had succumbed to Dredrac’s evil," replied Leilas.

"So they have," said Garabaldi, sadly. "All the more reason to try and fix what was broken by Rengailai, so all those who’ve been lost can be saved."

Leilas thought of Neothera and all those who were so far gone in the darkness they couldn’t find their way back. Would they be saved, too, once this evil had been destroyed? She wasn’t as sure as Garabaldi that this was how all of this was going to work, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

Kai and Erion returned with the vegetables and wood. They made quick work of kindling the fire and setting the food to cook. "I thought we’d be at the mountain by now," remarked Leilas, as she took the cup of coi-ya Kai offered her.

"We are at the base of the mountain," replied Kai.

Leilas looked around disbelievingly. All she saw was forest. The same forest she’d been tramping through for two days. "I’ll have to take your word for that," she said with half a smile and then drank down the aromatic concoction Kai had given her. "It still looks like forest to me." Cleaning her cup, she settled against her pack and was soon fast asleep.

Leilas could hear them and see them, but she couldn’t seem to move. She went through incantations in her mind, trying to break the spell that had been cast on her, but it didn’t feel like a spell and she couldn’t find an incantation to free her from her paralysis.

Erion and Kai had responded quickly to the threat and were in the heat of battle, while she struggled to move. Garabaldi had been slower to react, but he, too, was busy defending himself. The sounds of battle fell on her as she continued to struggle against the invisible bonds that held her. Kai and Erion were holding strong against the darklings and slowly turning the odds in their favor. Garabaldi was doing his best to get to her, though several darklings stood between them.

Just as Garabaldi reached her, Leilas heard Erion’s agonized cry. She struggled to see what had happened, but couldn’t. Garabaldi ran his hands over her, humming as he did and soon she could feel life coming back into her limbs. As soon as she could move, she grabbed her axe and joined the fight. Erion still stood fighting, but Kai was nowhere to be seen. Leilas hacked from behind, while Erion faced the darklings. When their enemy realized that another had come to aid Erion, they broke ranks and scattered. Leilas was tempted to follow them and finish them off, but one look at Erion’s face changed her mind. She followed his stare and discovered Kai, fallen and lying in the underbrush, covered in blood.

Forgetting the enemy, Leilas rushed to the side of their guide and fell to her knees. Her hands and mind searched out the wounds that had felled the elf maiden. They were deep and filled with dark magic that had come from magic weaved into the metal of the sword of her foe. It would be tricky working on an elf. She’d never had the opportunity before, except when Erion had fallen under the spell in the forest. Taking her time, she slowly began to chant the incantations to unweave the dark magic. It would do no good to heal the elf and leave the magic to fester. Erion had fallen to his knees by her side, but he was just a shadow as she worked. She could feel Garabaldi inside her mind, offering strength and guidance. Together they probed and chanted, but there were limits to how much help a dark crafter could be to a creature of the light. Before too long, he’d left Leilas to the task of healing Kai.

The sun began to rise, still Leilas chanted. Soon, sweat was pouring down her face, but still she continued. The sun was overhead when she ceased her singing and slumped to the ground. "I’ll take care of her," said Garabaldi to Erion. "You take care of Kai."