Blades of the Banished - Robert Ryan Page 0,12

should not be heard.

Lanrik let his mount drink, but he nocked an arrow to his bow and watched. Erlissa dismounted and filled her water bag. When she was done, she kneeled and drank herself. Then she took his water bag and filled it also. All the while he kept an eye out for the enemy. Water was rare in this land, so precious that the Azan might guard it.

He saw nothing. When the horses had taken their fill, and Erlissa remounted, he drank a little from his refilled water bag. The taste was as foreign to him as everything else in this land. He detected many minerals, including salt, but it was the hint of sulfur that stood out most. Even in trace amounts it was unpleasant, but that did not mean the water was unhealthy. Evidently, the sheep and horses, and no doubt the Azan in the huts drank it.

He made to move back along the road, but Erlissa shook her head.

“This way,” she whispered.

She nudged her mount forward, and it picked its way between several basins, coming out onto a smooth shelf of rock that funneled the water into them. The rock here was slick, and Lanrik’s horse struggled with its footing. But he followed her and after a moment the shelf broke up into shattered stone and then, unexpectedly, there was another path.

That it was seldom used, he saw straight away. And it was steep too. How Erlissa had found it, he did not know. He expected that she knew it from her vision, rather than that she had seen it while they drank.

At any rate, she showed no doubt about this new trail. She led the way with confidence. He had a feeling that the previous road skirted the ridges and valleys, providing a good way through into neighboring lands and villages. This new path, steep and rarely trodden, probably only led to one place: the dark tower beneath the mountain peak. They were close now. Not only to Aranloth, but also to the elùgroths who held him captive.

Lanrik turned the situation over in his mind. They still had no plan, and it worried him. He did not like the feeling at all, for usually he could think of something. Yet perhaps ideas would come to mind when he saw the tower with his own eyes.

They followed the winding path. It was so steep that Lanrik felt dizzy thinking of the long slide down behind him and the vast gulf of air that opened up in turns to left or right, depending on the twists of the road. Should the horses misstep, or should enemies attack, they were dead.

He concentrated on the narrow trail ahead. Erlissa stayed in the front. She knew that he was not good with heights. Just as well that it was dark. It would be worse if he could see the land dropping away to the sides.

There seemed no end to their climbing. They were now high up the mountain, and the towering peak must overshadow them, if only there was light enough to see it by. But he felt it there nevertheless, and saw something of its dim outline.

There was enough light to see something else. This was much closer. It was on the ground just before him, an impression in a run of sand that crossed the road: a drùgluck sign. The elug’s mark to be wary of danger, or sorcery, or both. Only this was not made by an elug. It came from the heel of a boot, and only elùgroths did that. It was a warning not to follow them.

The mountain breeze blew suddenly colder and cut right though him.

“Elùgroths have trod this path, he said.

“I know,” Erlissa replied. “But they’re not on the path now. They’re all at the tower.”

Lanrik wished he could be so sure, but he did not voice his doubt. At least one thing was certain; Erlissa had learned some tracking skills from him, or at least the habit of studying the ground as they rode. There was a time that she would have been oblivious to such things.

They kept going. Road or no road, drùgluck signs or not, Erlissa knew where she was headed. She needed nothing save her seeker sense to confirm that she was on the right path.

But they saw further evidence anyway. From above, a sudden light flared, white and dazzling. The ragged mountain peak was lit by it. Stone towered above them. The summit was near, jutting out overhead