Daneni clung shivering to the uppermost branches of the tree, eyes frantically
scanning the darkening woodland about her for a single sign of movement.
Nothing.
She calmed her breathing, straining to hear the faintest sound.
Again, nothing.
Releasing her death grip on the knotted branch, she shifted position,
sitting with her legs astride the branch and her back leaning against the
reassuringly solid trunk.
An hour passed. The light faded till she could barely see, and the
air grew ever cooler. Instinctively, she clutched at the simple talisman
the kindly woman had given her in High Keep. The kindly woman had warned
her about crossing Kithicor Wood at night, tried to tell her of the unsleeping
dead, the fallen of a mighty battle betwixt Light and Dark that had raged
here before she was even born, between Lord Balar and the Forces of Light,
and Lanys T'vyl's Forces of Darkness. But eager to press on, ever
mindful of her father's pursuing soldiers, whose pursuing dust cloud had
haunted her across the Karanas, she had not listened.
Besides, she had thought, there was scarcely anything frightening about
a skeleton. Why, several of them stumbled and blundered outside the walls
of the city, and it was a common enough pastime amongst the young folk
to go out after dark and dismember them!
She shook her head sadly at her own naivity.
Mindful of the dangers of a night journey, she had found fellow travellers
foolish enough to travel with her - a quietly hooded monk, a stern-faced
paladin of the Freeport Temple of Marr. Barely two miles in, they had found
their path guarded by a terrible skeletal knight. The knight had laughed
insanely at the sight of them, evoking a powerful incantation that had
struck down the paladin before he could so much as draw his sword.
Daneni had turned and run, blindly leaping fallen trees, stones and pools,
hands thrashing ahead of her, pushing branches and bracken to either side,
ignoring thorns, briars, stinging plants and anything else that snagged
or tore at her unprotected skin.
Coming at last to a solid oaken tree, she had scrambled up it as eagerly
as a child, pulling herself exhausted and afraid until she could climb
no more. And there she had rested, the woodland silent about her, the light
ever fading.
Now sighing, she bemoaned the loss of her water skin, dropped in her
mad flight and surely lost. Her throat, parched from her exertion, merely
added to her woes. She felt dreadfully tired, yet dreaded sleep. Pinching
herself to keep open heavy-lidded eyes, she tried not to think about her
chances of living through this night, of seeing once more the faintly glimmering
light of dawn.
Hours passed, and it grew colder still. So dark it was now she could
barely tell whether her eyes were open or not.
She wasn't sure when she first saw the light. A tiny pinprick of blue
in the midst of inpenetrable black, she stared at it without thinking long
before she woke up sharply and near lost her purchase in the branches.
Yes! A light! Faint, but growing ever closer, a bobbing blue light,
oft-obscured by intervening branches and the occasional black trunk, but
a light!
She strained her ears to catch the faintest sound, but heard nothing.
Never had she known so still and dead a forest! Nothing but her own ragged
breathing and the beating of her heart.
She clutched once more the talisman around her neck, fingers twisting
round the crude leather thong as she watched the approaching light.
Presently, one light became two, then two three. She watched, mesmerised,
unable to move, unable to cry out.
Almost silent, their feet making the very barest of sounds, three figures
stepped into the clearing beneath her perch, two either side encased in
helmet and armour, the leader smaller, with face hidden behind a soft-woven
cloak of finest silk.
They were small, almost children, and even as she wondered what they
were, the leader pulled off her hood to reveal a cloud of brilliant white
hair and two very pointed ears.
Unwilling, Daneni let out a low sob of fear, for these were surely
the evil Teir'Dal, the twisted children of Innoruuk, the Prince of Hate.
As sharp as a hawk, the Teir'Dal woman's head snapped up and her gleaming
eyes fixed on Daneni, raising her hand to give warning to her companions.
A moment later her hand fell, and she let out a soft amused laugh.
"So," she said to her companions, "what prey have we here? A fine girl-rabbit
for our cooking pot, I shouldn't wonder, and not at all bad for an evening's
hunting!"
Terrified, Daneni reached futiley for her dagger, thinking to hurl
it at her would-be captors.
The Teir'Dal woman gestured contemptuously, and Daneni felt all volition
vanish. From her own lips came words in a tongue she did not understand,
and she watched a mere observor as her body calmly climbed down through
the branches of the tree to stand at last before her mistress!
"That's better!" laughed the woman, "But my magics shall not hold you
long, so..." She took some stout rope from her belt and tightly bound Daneni's
hands. "There!" she said.
With another wave of her hand, she banished her enchantment and Daneni
staggered with shock as her mind once more became her own. She looked down
wide-eyed with fear at the small slender woman before her, barely a girl,
barely shoulder-high to her, and yet very much in control.
She looked at the woman's companions, two taller men, finely armoured,
and wearing terrifying helmets with skull faceplates.
"Who - who are you?" she managed, too afraid to meet the flint cold
eyes of the Teir'Dal woman as she asked.
The woman laughed. "You have no need to fear us so long as you obey
us!" Her voice softened a little, "And we do not eat humans - we are not
trolls!"
She pointed at the man to her right with a gloved hand. "This is Veldrinfaer,"
she said, "And he is accorded great respect amongst our people."
The armoured Teir'Dal warrior nodded curtly, but said nothing. The
woman pointed to the other, "And this is Uenin, also of our noble company."
Uenin bowed ironically, his expression unreadable beneath his skull-mask.
She smiled then, showing sharp white teeth.
"And I am Kyrisis, appointed by Morkano to lead the armies of Darkness."