EQUINOX
Karigan and her fellow Riders set off in the predawn
dark from the tower encampment and rode toward the breach. They
were all of them quiet. Even Yates was subdued, the loudest noises
the hoof falls and snorts of their horses.
Karigan had slept
surprisingly well after all the night’s turmoil. She’d been
emotionally wrung out, and perhaps sleep had provided a refuge. In
sleep, she could forget.
Now she rode beside
Ard at the end of the line while Alton and Estral led. She’d spoken
little to them as they readied to leave. She could tell her
reticence hurt them. As the group of riders neared the main
encampment, the sky grayed as the sun began to creep above the
horizon—not that she could see the horizon with the wall to one
side and the deep woods to the other.
They found the area
before the breach ablaze with lanterns and bonfires, and what must
have been the entire population of the encampment collected there,
a disproportionate horde facing the handful of Eletians in their
unmistakable pearlescent armor. Neither side held weapons pointed
at the other, but as Karigan neared, she discerned the grim faces
of the Sacoridians. Even without weapons drawn, they appeared ready
for conflict at the merest spark.
The Eletians and
soldiers both looked up at the party’s arrival, relief plain on the
faces of the latter. With the Eletians, it was not so easy to tell
their thoughts.
Alton halted Night
Hawk and swung out of the saddle to greet the Eletians, but they
strode right by him and made directly for Karigan
instead.
“Ah, Galadheon,”
Graelalea said. “You’ve arrived finally.”
Everyone looked at
Karigan. Startled to suddenly be the center of attention, she
hastily dismounted and found herself face to face with Graelalea.
The two gazed at one another at length.
“It is the equinox,”
the Eletian finally said. “Are your people ready?”
Before Karigan could
answer, a scowling Grant shoved his way in beside them. “I am
Lieutenant Grant,” he said, “commander of this
mission.”
Graelalea ignored
him, did not even seem to perceive his existence. “Who are the ones
that will be accompanying us?” she asked Karigan.
By now Alton and
Estral had joined them as well. Karigan felt caught in a vise
between the Eletians and her own people. She could practically feel
Grant’s glower burning into her. Even Condor poked his nose over
her shoulder to view the proceedings. It felt odd to have Graelalea
deferring to her when their very first meeting during the summer
had been less than amicable, and Graelalea anything but
deferential.
“To start with,” she
replied, “I should introduce Alton D’Yer who oversees the work here
to mend the wall.”
Graelalea finally
deigned to acknowledge him with a nod. “A difficult undertaking, if
not impossible, for the wall is a thing of good and evil, built
with good intentions, but constructed in evil ways.”
Alton bristled at
her words. It was his ancestors who had built the wall and her
words could be construed as an insult, but to Karigan’s relief, he
held his tongue.
“This is Graelalea,”
she said hastily. “The sister of Eletia’s crown
prince.”
“Welcome to D’Yer
Province,” Alton said.
“This was once the
north region of Argenthyne,” Graelalea said, “before it was
infringed upon by your people and the darkness from
Arcosia.”
Alton clamped his
mouth shut as if refraining from saying something he might regret.
Others among the Sacoridians grumbled and Karigan wished Graelalea
would try being a little more diplomatic. Hoping to prevent an
incident, she began to introduce Estral, but Graelalea turned to
her of her own accord and spoke to her in flowing
Eletian.
Estral cocked her
head and listened intently. When Graelalea finished, Estral said,
“I do not understand the words, but your meaning washed over me
like music.”
Graelalea appeared
pleased by her response.
“This is Estral
Andovian,” Karigan supplied. “Daughter of the Golden Guardian of
Selium.”
“I know,” Graelalea
said. “As my words are music she understands, her presence is a
song I hear. Well met, little cousin.”
Estral smiled in
pleasure.
It was said there
was Eletian blood in the Fiori line, and Graelalea’s acknowledgment
only seemed to confirm it. Finally Karigan introduced the fuming
Lieutenant Grant as the commander of the Sacoridian half of the
expedition, not as the commander of the
expedition. Grant appeared no happier when Graelalea offered him
scant attention. When Karigan introduced Lynx, he presented
Graelalea with a box.
“A gift from King
Zachary,” he said.
The label on the box
indicated it was from Master Gruntler’s Sugary, which meant it
contained—
“Chocolate!”
Graelalea exclaimed in delight. She showed the box to the other
Eletians and they murmured in approval. “Our thanks to the king for
his thoughtfulness.”
By the time Karigan
completed introductions, the dusk of dawn had lightened
considerably.
“It is time,”
Graelalea said. “Daylight begins, day balances night. It is time to
enter the forest.”
Karigan’s hand went
to Condor’s neck. He puffed gently into her hair. All at once she
found she must say good-bye to her beloved horse and her friends.
She wrapped her arms around Condor’s neck, fighting tears, and
handed his reins over to Dale.
“Don’t you worry,”
Dale said. “Plover and I will keep an eye on him. We’ll keep him in
condition so he’s ready for you when you return.”
Karigan hugged her
and the other Riders who were staying behind. When she came face to
face with Alton and Estral, she hesitated, and then turned
away.
“Karigan.” Alton
grabbed her arm and hauled her into an embrace. “I know you’re
mad,” he whispered, “but I care. About you. I want you to come back
safe and sound.”
“Me, too,” Estral
said, taking her turn. “Don’t take any unnecessary
risks.”
Karigan was torn by
her anger at their betrayal and her desire to find comfort in their
friendship. But she just couldn’t give in, even now as she was
about to enter Blackveil. Too much pride, too much hurt. If she
didn’t come back and they felt guilty? A small vindictive part of
her thought it would serve them right. But as she turned away from
them so they wouldn’t see the tears gathering in her eyes, she was
the one feeling guilty, alone, and, frankly, afraid.
She shrugged her
pack on and with a deep breath, faced the breach. Grant was issuing
final instructions.
“We stay together,”
he was saying. “No one wanders off.”
Soldiers leaned a
ladder against the repairwork of the breach, climbed up, and
lowered a second ladder down the other side. Then they took up
positions staring down into the forest with crossbows at the
ready.
“We’ll keep a daily
watch for your return,” Captain Wallace told them.
Grant saluted and
pivoted. “I’ll go over first.” Without awaiting anyone to
contradict him, he strode over to the breach and climbed up the
ladder.
“That one will not
last long,” Graelalea observed.
Corporal Porter was
right behind Grant. When both men had disappeared over the
repairwork,Yates cried, “Woohoo!” and ran for the breach,
scrambling up the ladder.
One by one Karigan
watched her companions climb over the breach and disappear to the
other side. The Eletians moved with grace, their armor no hindrance
to them at all.
“I will see you in
the shadows,” Graelalea told her before ascending the ladder
herself.
Karigan was the last
to go. She did not lag, but she did not hurry, and when she stood
atop the repairwork, she gazed one last time at the verdant world
she was leaving behind, and at her friends with their anxious
expressions watching from below. Estral’s face was buried into
Alton’s shoulder and his arms were loosely wrapped around
her.
Karigan turned her
back on them and began her descent into the clinging gray mist of
Blackveil Forest. The dawn that had begun to brighten the day on
the other side of the wall no longer touched her.