darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,100

keep an eye on you.

Mudlight followed us all the way out here? asked Triss. And we didn’t notice him?

No, and yes. Or, the other way round, really. He followed you only as far as the end of the water-road, but he did not cross into the broader realm because that would have forced him to make a formal visit of it. And, obviously, he kept out of your sight if you had to ask about it.

Obviously, Triss sent my way dryly.

If Shallowshunter heard, she ignored him. Mudlight told me little of your purpose beyond who and what you are and that you travel by night to avoid unfriendly observers. Given whom you once served, I can do a bit more than keep an eye out for you. If you like, I can arrange to bring you across to the dirtplace of the Lady. None will bother you in the waters there.

That would be appreciated, I sent. Perhaps a few nights from now? Even the nearer shore of the island would make an impossibly long paddle for us in one go. It was well over a hundred miles from the river’s mouth to the nearest point of the Lady’s island and out here in the lake we wouldn’t have the current to help us.

Tonight, sent Shallowshunter. Then, without another word, she sank beneath the waters.

“I wish they wouldn’t just vanish like that without saying good-bye,” said Faran. “It’s disconcerting.”

Several minutes passed and Shallowshunter didn’t return, so we began to travel again. After perhaps a half hour, I felt the boat suddenly surge forward beneath me. What the fuck is that . . . ?

Tonight I said, and tonight I meant, the reply came from below, alerting me to the fact that I had done the mental equivalent of speaking my question aloud. I have acquired some help, continued Shallowshunter. We take you to the island now.

We were soon moving at such a clip that water foamed along our bows, and putting a paddle in was nothing more than an invitation to have it yanked from your hands—at least as fast as a cantering horse, if not faster. The eels went on and on at that pace without flagging. I don’t know how many of her fellows Shallowshunter had summoned to help out, but our speed dropped only briefly and occasionally when one of the Storm Eels passed off the job of towing to another.

The sun was just beginning to spill blood into the sky when we finally spied the nearer shore of the vast island that belonged to the Lady of Leivas.

Do you wish to rest here on the shore, now? sent Shallowshunter. The sun is not yet up, though it soon will be. The slopes are very steep here and we have only another few hours’ travel if you wish to reach better accommodation for your kind.

We should probably put in, I sent. It’s far more important that no one see us than that we have a comfortable place to bed down.

The decision is yours, of course, but there are no hostile eyes here to see you. Boats do not approach within five hundred lengths of the Lady’s isle uninvited, and she is not currently receiving. If we stay close to shore we can take you many thousands of lengths yet without any danger of detection.

Lengths? asked Triss. Lengths of what?

Of an adult of my kind, replied Shallowshunter.

So, a three- or four-mile exclusion zone, I sent once I’d done the rough math to sort out five hundred eel lengths in my head. There’s not many who could see us at that distance, especially against the dark backdrop of the island. All right. Take us where you will.

Done.

The eels towed us north and east, hugging the coastline all the way. The island was tall and steep sided—a pair of low mountains really, rising sharply from the lake bottom a couple of hundred feet below. The underlying stone was a color near black, showing through the lush green forest in ragged stripes and scars where rockfalls had ripped away the growth. Perhaps three hours after dawn we arrived at a point due east of the larger peak and the boats suddenly slowed, turning sharply to the left.

For a moment it seemed as if the eels were about to drag us into the rocky cliffs, but then we turned left again and I realized there was a hidden opening there. A narrow channel of water ran north to south between two vast curtains