The Shadow Roads

Thirty-six

Alaan came quickly up the stairs, careful to make no sound. “Thereare three of Hafydd’s guards below,” he whispered, “one sleeping.”

Tam looked at Cynddl, whose face was suddenly grave. Theyhad come there hoping that Elise might be found, for this was the island’sancient landing spot. But Elise was not here.

“We can’t leave them here,” Alaan whispered. He saw the reactionof his companions; they did not like to kill men in cold blood. “They mightcome upon us from behind”-he looked from Tam to Cynddl-“and they will nothesitate to kill us.”

Cynddl bent his bow and dropped the bowstring into itsnotch. Tam took a long breath and did the same. He hadn’t much stomach forwhat they were about to do.

They nodded to Alaan, and he started down the stair, silentas a breeze. The others followed, careful where they placed their feet, Cynddlwatching their backs as they went. After a brief descent Alaan stopped. Theriver could just be made out through the leaves of trees. Tam thought two darkshapes must be Hafydd’s guards, but could not be sure.

Alaan leaned close to his ear, and whispered. “Come down alittle farther where you can see them better. Wait until I reach the bottomof the stair, then shoot the guards. If somehow one escapes, I’ll see to him.”Alaan paused. “They’ll be wearing mail shirts.”

Tam nodded, and Alaan whispered the same thing to the Fael.All three climbed down a few more stairs, where Tam could not mistake a blacktree trunk for one of Hafydd’s guards. He nocked an arrow and placed threeothers within easy reach. A glance up told him the stair above was still empty.Cynddl caught his eye and turned down his mouth. Neither liked what they wereabout to do, but these were the same men who had shot Baore and tried to killthem more than once. It was a war, after all.

The call of a sorcerer thrush wafted through the wood-almostenough to make Tam smile. He pulled back the arrow, sighting carefully, notforgetting that they shot downhill and need not allow so much for the arrow’sarc.

“Ready?” Cynddl whispered.

Tam nodded, and they let their arrows fly. Tam heard themflash through the leaves but hardly looked to see whether they found theirmark. Instead he snatched up another arrow, and set it in place. Beyond thecurtain of leaves, a dark form staggered, bent double, but before Tam couldshoot again he saw another moving, quick and direct. Alaan dispatched the manin a stroke and went after another. Cynddl put an arrow in the sleeper, who hadnot wakened, or moved at all.

When Tam and the story finder reached the bottom of thestair, they found Alaan crouched over one of Hafydd’s guards, who had an arrowin his chest, the Fael bow proving stronger than links of iron once again.

“We don’t know,” the man whispered, trembling with the pain.He choked and spat up blood, then gasped horribly. “We were separated …lost.”

Alaan took the point of his blade away from the guard’sthroat and stood up.

“The third man was already dead,” Alaan said, a dark lookcrossing his face. “Kai was here, but escaped in the boat after the guard waskilled.” He gazed down the river.

“What of this one?” Cynddl asked, afraid to hear the answer.

The man lay, eyes closed, jaw clenched against the pain,sweat bathing his face. He choked again.

“I promised him a clean death,” Alaan said. “He’s seen mendrown in their own blood before.”

Cynddl and Tam turned away but had not taken a step whenthey heard the unmistakable sound of a blade cutting into flesh. Tam closed hiseyes.

“Come,” Alaan said, his voice subdued. “We’ll give them tothe river.”

The three bodies were dragged to the western shore, crowscalling from the trees, scolding the men. Alaan took the guards’ swords anddaggers and peeled off their mail shirts so that the bodies might driftdownstream. One at a time they were slipped into the river, the current takingthem in its soft fist. For a moment they lay, half-submerged, then they slidbeneath the surface, into the cool, dark depths of the River Wynnd.

“Their war is over,” Alaan said gently, as though they werenot his enemies. “But ours is not.”

They reached the bottom of the stair, and Alaan stopped,looking up at the sun, appearing to listen carefully. “Quick now, before thestair leads somewhere else.”

They went bounding up the uneven treads.

“But how do you know where it leads when?” Cynddl asked asthey ran.

“It is the gift given to Sainth by his father. Though evenso, it took Sainth some study to get the lay of the land here. It is an islandin flux, the destination of this stairway changing even as we climb it. Hurry,if we don’t reach our companions soon it will be a long wait.”

They found their friends at the top of a short, overgrowncliff. While Alaan and the others were away, they had thrown ropes over stoutbranches that overhung the river, and using them like ships’ davits, had hauledthe boat up where it swung gently, well hidden from anyone on water or land.

Crowheart, as always, appeared quietly fascinated with anyplacethey traveled. Dease, still gray-faced with smoke, climbed up onto the island’slow shoulder and smiled weakly at Tam. The Renne had not yet recovered from hisordeal in the river, and their hours of paddling had left him utterlyexhausted. Tam thought Dease went forward only on pride.

Gear was quickly gathered up and portioned out, and as theypacked their gear, Fynnol came over and began fussing with his pack beside Tam.

“So, what happened?” he said quietly. “You look as grim as Ican remember, Cousin.”

“We found three of Hafydd’s guards, though one was alreadydead. We shot them and Alaan finished the last of them after he’d answered somequestions.”

“One of Hafydd’s guards divulged information about his master!”

“Nothing particularly useful.”

“Ah.” Fynnol hefted his pack up and swung it into place. “Andwhere are we going now?”

“We are following Alaan. And I would stay close if I wereyou. This island is like the River Wynnd; its paths don’t always lead where you’reexpecting, or even to the same place twice.”

“Should we be on the lookout for this soul eater?” Cynddlasked Alaan.

Alaan stopped packing his gear. “Not yet. It can’t exist byday. Hafydd will create it after sunset, and by the last hours of darkness itwill have begun to die, passing the peak of its strength in the middle hoursbetween sunset and sunrise.”

Tam shivered. “How do we fight this monster?” he asked.

“You don’t. It can’t be harmed by any weapon devised by men.

Its skin is more impenetrable than the finest mail, and it’sstronger than the nichmear, though not as large, or so the stories say.” Alaanlooked suddenly troubled. “Listen, all of you. This thing that Hafydd will makeis of the ancient world and more powerful than we can understand. You cannothope to stand against it. It killed Tusival, the most powerful sorcerer whoever lived. If we can’t stop Hafydd from creating it …” He did not finish;nor did he need to.

“I suppose the question, then,” Fynnol said, “is, how do wekill Hafydd?”

“A more reasonable proposition,” Alaan answered, “but stillnot easily done. If Elise is here, we might prevail against Hafydd, the two ofus, but if he finds us one at a time, we shall be lucky to survive.”

“He has never caught you yet,” Crowheart offered, breakinghis silence.

“No, not in this life,” Alaan said softly. “There is onepossibility. The spell to create a soul eater would be very complicated-toocomplicated to perform from memory. It will be written down, in a book, mostlikely. Even the book would not be easy to destroy, but if we meet Hafydd, thatbook would be more important than any of our lives-mine included.”