3 When Darkness Falls.8 (47 page)

"So much for your dreams of ease, lazy one," Keirasti said to her Second. "Take this pack up with you; it is filled with Idalia's medicines. Tomorrow we begin to rejoin the army."

Whatever message Keirasti had carried, Jermayan reflected, Maredhiel obviously had no inkling of it. She accepted her parcel readily, with no indication that she was burdened by more-than-ordinary cares.

He waited for the two Knights to ride away.

"Soon we can ask Kellen," Ancaladar said.

"Yes," Jermayan answered. "Soon."

* * * * *

IN the end, it came down to the simple work of butchery.

They outnumbered their enemy ten — a hundred — to one, and the Shadowed Elves had no place to run to. Some of them fled through the passage that led to the surface; Kellen's battle-sight showed him that Churashil's force made short work of them there.

But far more remained in the caverns below. Some had managed to evade Kellen's force, but Umerchiel and the others waited in the chamber beyond, and there were no other exists from it. So they, too, were accounted for.

Many of the Shadowed Elves in the river gallery had thrown down their weapons when the caverns began to shake; it became a matter of finding those that were still alive, driving them up against the walls of the gallery, and cutting them to pieces.

Sometimes the Shadowed Elves would hide among the mounds of their dead. After the first one had attacked from such a hiding place, Kellen ordered all the Shadowed Elf corpses checked. They found more survivors. Two Elves would hold the victim while a third slit the captive's throat.

None of the swimmers reached the far shore alive.

By the time the Elves had finished their bloody work, the Angarussa had begun to run normally, washing the bodies of the floating dead that had fallen into its waters away with it.

After he had disposed of the Shadowed Elf sortie that had reached the surface, Churashil had sent scouts down into the caverns, and received new orders from Kellen. Braziers had been brought to warm the river-gallery, and a steady stream of wounded were being evacuated to the main camp.

There weren't many. Only a tiny fraction of the company of Elves Kellen had brought into Halacira had actually engaged the enemy in the Shadowed Elf attack.

And most of them had drowned.

Eventually Kellen's people would have to try to dredge the river to recover the bodies.

Kellen tried to think of what he could have done differently, had he known Halacira had become an Enclave of the Shadowed Elves before he'd entered the caverns. But he could think of nothing. He would still have had to go down into the caves with his Knights to find them. The caves would still have been entrapped. The Shadowed Elves would still have flooded the caves.

If he had gone alone, he might have gotten out the way he'd come. Or he might have died. If he'd come down with a smaller force, they might all have died, for it was their overwhelming numbers that had kept so many of them alive today.

As brutal as it was, despite the losses they had suffered, this was the best outcome they could have hoped for.

It didn't feel right.

And they were still going to have to search the caves thoroughly, because they could not allow even one of the Tainted creatures to survive. "Did the day go as you wished it?"

Wirance walked over to the nearest brazier and held his hands out to its warmth. The Wildmage looked exhausted. Lines of weariness etched his weatherbeaten features.

"What are you still doing here?" Kellen demanded. "I told Umerchiel to send all the Wildmages up to the Healers as soon as the passage was clear."

"Aye, well, as to that… I stayed with Kerleu. I have to say, I thought we were going to bring the whole place down on us when the spell ran. But the mountain's bones run deep."

Kerleu stayed too? But all the wounded should have been evacuated hours ago.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Kellen said.

"A life was the Price, a life freely given," Wirance said. "We all agreed to pay it. He had a valiant heart, but crossing the Mystrals too often will weaken it. It could well have happened without the spell."

But it didn't.

Kellen drew a deep breath. "He is no less a casualty of war than Ambanire, or any other who fell in battle here today. He will be so honored."

Wirance clapped him on the shoulder. "All goes as the Huntsman wills, lad. Kerleu goes to the Forest to be born again to the Wife. He'll be back, sure as flowers in the spring."

Kellen nodded, though spring — and Wirance's easy certainty that it would come — seemed very far away.

"And the day?" Wirance said again.

"We won," Kellen said slowly. "In a day or two, I suppose we'll know whether the caverns are clear. And Artenel and his people can get to work rebuilding them to make them into a fortress."

"So no one who died here died for nothing," Wirance said, sounding satisfied. "And now that I've got a little heat in these old bones, I'll get back to Kerleu."

"I'll go with you."

* * * * *

MUCH of the main force of the army was still in the selkie-chamber and the mining-cavern beyond it. Kellen searched until he found Isinwen. His Second was battered—and, of course, soaking wet—but alive and well.

"It's going to take forever to move everyone out across the causeway," Kellen said once greetings had been exchanged. "Is there any chance now of getting out through the main entrance?"

For one thing, it was closer to the camp. That meant dry clothes, fires, and food — something all of them needed. Churashil had brought horses and wagons around to the river cavern entrance to transport the wounded, and the Knights that had so far made their way to the surface through that exit, but the sun was setting, and to move all the horses around to that entrance and ride back again would take a long time — and they'd be even colder than they were now.

"The main entrance should be clear by now — if damp," Isinwen said after a moment's thought.

"Take a party and see."

* * * * *

THOUGH several of the side-galleries had collapsed — due to either the Shadowed Elves' work or the Wildmages' spell — the route to the surface was clear, and Kellen immediately began evacuating his army through the larger entrance. He would leave no one behind in the caves tonight, not even the dead. Guarding the exits would have to be enough.

Leaving the caves went a good deal faster than entering them had. He was glad of that much. There were a number of blessings to be counted, if he cared to: no
duergar
had lurked anywhere in the unlighted depths of the caves to draw any of his troops farther in. The Shadowed Elves had not summoned any of the Shadow's other allies to aid them — if the Elves had faced Frost Giants and Ice Trolls here in Halacira, as well as Shadowed Elves and rising water, their situation would have been unwinnable.

But the Shadowed Elves had been willing to die to the last soul to destroy their enemy, and perhaps their allies had not. Or perhaps they simply had not been able to reach them in time.

Finally the last band of Elves prepared to ascend to the surface. Kellen wrapped his borrowed — dry — cloak around him and followed.

AS the day dimmed, Jermayan and Ancaladar saw no trace of Kellen's army, though as they neared Halacira, they saw signs of their passage in plenty, for the trees had kept the snow from eradicating the marks of the horses and wagons completely.

"He cannot have moved the army this fast," Jermayan groaned.

"He has," Ancaladar answered simply.

It was — barely — possible. For a master general, in complete command of his forces, driven by a necessity Jermayan could only wonder at. He could only hope that Kellen had stopped to rest for a day or two in camp before going down into the caverns.

But in his heart, he began to suspect he might already be too late.

When they flew over the Angarussa, he saw that its surface was cracked and marred by the passage of thousands of Elven Knights. His worst suspicions were confirmed when he reached the camp. It was fully set, but not fully tenanted. There was a deep path beaten in the snow between the campsite and the main entrance to the caverns. Near the trees, he could already see a few bodies wrapped in white.

"I will find a place to land," Ancaladar said.

The clearing Ancaladar found was a little distance from the main camp. After unsaddling Ancaladar, it took Jermayan a good half hour to make his way through the snow to the edge of the camp.

Artenel greeted him.

"I See you, Jermayan."

"I See you, Artenel. I expected to find you still upon the road for Halacira."

"Come, take tea. We might well have been, but we have made good time. And just as well, else the Shadowed Elves that Kellen encountered in the caverns below would have had more time to complete their work, and the day would have gone more wretchedly than it has. I would have welcomed the opportunity to have studied the engines they used to flood the caverns, but I believe they have now been smashed beyond all discerning."

"It will please me to hear all that you can tell. I came to warn Kellen that there was an Enclave here — but I see my warning comes too late."

If he had flown here directly the moment Idalia had told him of Vestakia's visions —

If he had not stopped to bring Keirasti back to Redhelwar, or put off his flight to the Crowned Horns —

"Our losses were light, so I am told," Artenel said simply. "The Wild Magic warned him that there was Taint in the caverns below, but we did not suspect that our poor brothers would be able to call the river into them. Umerchiel believes we have slain them all this time, but it will be many days before we are certain."

Artenel's words did much to reassure Jermayan, but little to comfort him. He had simply forgotten how fast Kellen could move when he decided there was a need to hurry.

And Jermayan still didn't know what it was.

"I am grateful for your offer of tea, but I must speak with Kellen as soon as I can," Jermayan said.

"Then you should go to the cavernmouth. Go first to the horse-lines. Casanilde is there, and will find you a mount to take you swiftly."

"My thanks to you," Jermayan said.

* * * * *

A few minutes later Jermayan was riding toward the horse-lines along the beaten path through the snow. Along the way he passed groups of weary riders heading back from the cavern mouth, and Elves leading more strings of horses back to the entrance to mount those yet to depart.

When he reached the cavernmouth, Jermayan saw that a series of hasty shelters had been erected, offering shelter and tea to those who had just come up from the depths. Kellen stood beneath one awning, holding a mug of tea in one hand and leaning over a flaming brazier.

Jermayan felt a deep pang of relief. Kellen looked exhausted, but uninjured.

"You'll burn yourself if you stand any closer," Jermayan said.

Kellen glanced up, first looking pleased to see his friend, then wary at the possibility of bad news.

"I bring no ill tidings," Jermayan said quickly. "I came to bring you warning. I see now that it is too late."

Kellen shook his head slowly. "I made too many mistakes. I can't think of anything I could have done differently, but…" He stopped. "I sent Keirasti back over the Mystrals with a message for Redhelwar. Jermayan — "

"I have already brought her and her message before the Army's General, and returned her to her command. She asks me to tell you she will be with you soon."

Kellen smiled at that. "I just bet she will."

"It would please me greatly to know what news she carried that was of such urgency," Jermayan said.

Kellen looked around. "I don't see Ancaladar."

"He is there." Jermayan pointed in the direction of the clearing where he had left the dragon. "Let's go."

Kellen paused to give last orders to a few of his commanders, then mounted Firareth, and the two of them rode off toward Ancaladar's clearing. When the two of them were out of sight of the cavernmouth, Kellen spoke again.

"When we were at Ondoladeshiron, I had an audience with Rochinuviel. She'd had a private message from Sentarshadeen just after you left. There's plague in Sentarshadeen, and Andoreniel is very ill. Too ill to give orders. She didn't think a messenger had been sent to Redhelwar, and even if one had, nothing was getting through the pass. There was a Shadewalker."

Jermayan barely heard the test of Kellen's words.

"The King is ill?" he asked, with blunt rudeness.

"I don't know what will happen to the army if Andoreniel can't give it orders," Kellen said, sounding as close to despair as Jermayan had ever heard him. "I asked Redhelwar to move the army to Ondoladeshiron, but… I don't know if he will."

"He is doing it now," Jermayan said. "Though to move an army across the mountains in the depths of winter is no quick matter."

* * * * *

"DON'T I know it," Kellen said.

A combination of uneasiness and relief filled him. He knew it was the right thing to do, but having Redhelwar take his advice… well, that only meant that he'd have to figure out what to do once the army had reached Ondoladeshiron, that was all.