DARK MIRROR
When the evening wound down, a few Riders excusing
themselves to go to bed, Dale sat with Karigan explaining to her
what had happened to her shoulder in Tower of the Earth. Alton had
already told Karigan about it, but now she got Dale’s version of
events and it was frightening.
“So Merdigen is now
consulting with the other tower mages about what to do?” Karigan
asked.
Dale nodded. “We
don’t know what happened to Haurris or his tower, and we don’t know
what that creature in there is or how it got there in the first
place.” She shuddered.
“And whatever it is
could pose a danger to the rest of the wall,” Karigan
murmured.
“Exactly, and there
may not be a thing we can do about it. As if the breach wasn’t
enough to worry about.”
When Estral finished
playing and punctuated it with a huge yawn, the party truly broke
up. She hugged Karigan on her way out and said, “It’s so good to
see you. I want to talk more, but now I’m about to fall asleep on
my feet.”
Alton was right
behind her with his good nights, the last of the partiers
dispersing after him, leaving Dale and Karigan alone in the
tent.
“How is he?” Karigan
asked. “How is he really?”
“Alton? Much
better,” Dale replied. “There were some rough moments, but he’s
come around very well.”
“I’m glad,” Karigan
said. It was hard to discern Alton’s well-being for he was quieter
than she remembered, and when they talked, it was as two
acquaintances, not as friends who’d been much closer. His letters
had been more personal. In fact, the Alton who had written about
how anxious he was for her to join him at the wall seemed a
different person than the Alton she’d seen today, almost aloof.
Maybe all that time apart had turned them into strangers. If there
was anything he wanted to say to her, he’d better overcome his
aloofness and hurry up. She’d be departing the day after
tomorrow.
And what should she
say to him? That she was open to the possibilities?
“Well I’m done in,”
Dale said. “Think you can find your way to your tent, or do you
need a guide?”
“You’d probably
better help me,” Karigan said. “I’ll never find the right one in
the dark.”
And so Dale led her
to the tent she was to share with Trace. Karigan hugged her friend
once more.
“It is good to see
you, Dale,” she said. “We’ve missed you.”
“And good to see
you, too, Sir Karigan.” Dale snorted in
laughter. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, still laughing. “Can’t help it.
Don’t know which is funnier, Sir Karigan or Queen Oddacious. Good
night.”
Karigan watched her
friend stroll away with the lantern, sputtering with laughter as
she went. If Karigan had any illusions of her recently bestowed
title ever eliciting respect from her fellow Riders, they were now
thoroughly crushed.
She smiled and
ducked into her tent.
After Karigan’s late
night, and with no duties assigned her, she slept well into the
morning, the simple cot a luxury after all those nights on the
ground. She’d have one more night on the cot and then it was into
Blackveil, and she didn’t even want to think about what nights
sleeping in the forest would be like.
When she arose, she
found Trace gone already, but the Rider had fired up the little
stove making the tent toasty warm. Karigan took her time, yawning
and stretching, and getting ready for the day.
Finally stepping out
into the world, she found no Green Riders in sight, but discovered
Yates in the dining tent spooning hot porridge into his
mouth.
“Where is everyone?”
she asked, sitting down beside him with her own bowl.
“Alton has them all
in a meeting in the tower to talk about assignments.”
“Already?”
He shrugged, and she
remembered Alton had requested the help of more Riders months ago.
She couldn’t blame him for being anxious to get everyone working as
soon as possible.
“Lynx went off into
the woods to talk to the animals or something,” Yates continued.
“Too much civilization.”
“Ard?”
“Still snoring away
in his tent.”
“And
Estral?”
“In the tower with
the others.”
Karigan sighed. She
hoped they weren’t going to be in there all day, otherwise, how
would she occupy herself?
“What are you up to
today?”
“When Edna over
there gets off breakfast shift, we’re going to enjoy each other’s
company.” Yates smiled and gave a little wave to one of the cooks
ladling out porridge to other latecomers. She was a pretty, petite
thing.
Well, Karigan
thought, there was always Condor for companionship, and she would
soon be missing him, but she couldn’t help feeling rather
desolate.
When she left the
dining tent, she collected her riding gear and visited Condor,
grooming him till his coat gleamed, brushing away winter coat that
fell out by the handfuls. He bobbed his head and nickered in
approval.
She then tacked him
up and mounted, and rode through the encampment to the wall.
Instead of heading west toward the breach, she reined Condor east.
She put him through his paces, sometimes riding at an easy walk or
lope, and then riding harder as the terrain allowed. All the while
the wall remained unrelenting beside her. She could ride all the
way to the Eastern Sea and the wall’s cold, hard facade would not
change.
As she rode, she
tried to remain in the present, taking conscious note of how the
woods smelled, how sunlight played on the tips of evergreens. She
listened to the chatter of birds and watched squirrels pursue one
another around the boles of trees, oblivious to the dangers the
wall protected them from. It was hard to believe that behind just a
few feet of stone a whole other world existed, like a dark mirror
of the one she now rode through.
Tomorrow, the
equinox would bring not just balance between day and night, but
spring. While this side of the wall grew brighter, enlivened by
birds returning from southern regions and green growth replacing
patches of snow and ice, she wondered what spring did in Blackveil,
or if seasons there were irrelevant.
Whatever the case,
she wanted to imprint on her mind what she might otherwise take for
granted. No matter how she tried to stay in the present, however,
it was impossible to prevent the noise of thoughts and concerns
from filling her mind: what to do about Alton, when would the
Eletians arrive, what would it do to her father if she did not
survive Blackveil.
At midday she halted
to eat the cold meal provided by the encampment cooks. She leaned
against the wall, peeling a hard-boiled egg and watching Condor
crop at the withered greenery. What would happen to Condor if she
didn’t return? She expected he’d find a new Rider, just as he’d
found her. It was hard imagining him partnered with someone else.
It was as if he’d always been hers.
When she finished
eating, there was nothing to do but turn back. As she reined Condor
around, there was a fluttering above in one of the trees. A great
winter owl still in its snow plumage perched on a crooked branch.
It seemed to watch her without actually looking at
her.
The owl nudged
something deep in her mind, a hidden memory she could not grasp,
and try as she would, she could not bring it to the surface. She
shrugged. If it were important, it would come to her
eventually.
She felt privileged
to encounter such a magnificent bird on her ride, but in moments
the owl itself became no more than a memory when it launched up
through the branches of trees and beyond until it was out of view.
Karigan let out a breath as though released from a
spell.
She arrived back at
the encampment just before supper. She’d taken her time on the
return, as this would probably be her last ride of any length on
Condor for quite a while. He seemed to sense it as well, for when
she finished untacking and grooming him, he set his head on her
shoulder and she wrapped her arm around his neck. He heaved a great
sigh as she stroked him.
“Dale will be
keeping an eye on you for me,” she told him. “So you better
behave.”
He flicked his tail
in a halfhearted way.
There was no way to
heave horses over the wall to get them into Blackveil, plus the
forest was no place for an oversized prey animal, so Karigan and
her fellow Sacoridians, and presumably the Eletians, would be
entering the forest on foot. There was something that felt very
wrong about Green Riders being separated from their
horses.
She would bid Condor
her final farewell in the morning when they rode to the breach. She
patted him on the shoulder, gathered her gear, and walked
away.
At supper, the young
Riders were as boisterous as ever. Yates was presumably with his
Edna, and Lynx prowling the forest. She found Garth sitting with
Ard, but no sign of Dale, Alton, or Estral.
When she joined
Garth and Ard with a bowl of stew, Ard said, “Grant says we’re to
be at the breach tomorrow before sunrise. I let Lynx know a while
ago before he disappeared again. Told Yates at midday when his lass
had to work another shift.”
Karigan nodded and
blew on a spoonful of stew.
“Where were you all
day?” Ard asked.
“Just
riding.”
“Just riding?
Where?”
“East.” For some
reason it irked her that he needed to know. To her, her ride with
Condor was her own business. Private.
“East, huh,” Ard
grumbled. He did not press her for more, but his gaze lingered on
her longer than she liked.
Soon Dale and Trace
arrived, followed first by Alton, and then Estral. They talked and
laughed through supper, and none of them seemed to care she’d been
gone all day, if they’d even noticed. Alton was seated too far away
from her to carry on a conversation. This wasn’t the place to talk
about their personal matters, anyway. Too many people
around.
“Still no sign of
the Eletians,” Trace said. “What if they don’t come?”
Ard, who appeared to
be the man with the answers, replied, “Grant says we wait a few
days and if they don’t show, we return to Sacor City.”
Karigan had stated
before, and still believed, that the Eletians would come. They just
wouldn’t reveal themselves before they were ready.
Estral edged her way
into a space on the bench between Karigan and Garth and began
talking about their day.
“There were
arguments about who got assigned to which tower,” she said. “For
some reason no one seemed particularly eager to stay at Mad Leaf’s
tower, so Alton had them draw lots.”
“So who gets Mad
Leaf?” Karigan had to admit that just the name Mad Leaf wouldn’t
have made her too keen on being assigned to Tower of the Trees
either.
“Garth.”
Karigan laughed. No
wonder he sat so quiet hunkered over his food.
“I get to stay here
at Tower of the Heavens when Alton and Dale visit the
others.”
“You’ll become a
regular Green Rider.”
“Not very likely,”
Estral said. “I’ll be busy working out that piece of music from the
Silverwood book. We’ll see how the guardians respond to it. Music
is something I can do. I’ll leave the Green Ridering to Green
Riders.”
Karigan gazed anew
at her friend. Estral seemed to have taken to life here at the
wall, her features animated as she talked about all the work that
needed to be done. Estral had loved nothing more than teaching
young students at Selium, but this was something else. There was a
brightness to her Karigan didn’t remember seeing
before.
But now Estral
turned serious. “There’s something I would like to talk to you
about if we could get a private moment later.”
Karigan nodded,
wondering what it could be. Estral returned her nod with a
faltering smile. Soon she was called upon to sing and play as she
had been the previous night. When Karigan glanced at Alton, he was
deep in conversation with Dale and Captain Wallace, going over
papers of some sort. She excused herself and decided she would
prepare her gear for tomorrow. She would seek out both Alton and
Estral later. She would learn what was on Estral’s mind, and have
private words with Alton, and perhaps more if all went
well.