The Dragon's Lover (19 page)

Feyden glanced from one woman to the other. He had
thought Raine's comment would have generated an outburst or protest
from Idonea, but instead she kept her tongue and merely crossed her
arms over her chest.

“Why Idonea?” Dagna asked, “And why wait until we
reach the Edge?”

Raine addressed the second question first. “I did not
think Idonea would accompany me clear across the land on her own
accord, and I did not wish to carry her kicking and screaming the
entire way. It was easier for us to travel as a group.”

“Still,” Dagna said, “why Idonea?”

“It is not Idonea herself,” Raine said, “but rather
what she carries with her. Something I myself could not carry, and
in fact, could not even touch.”

All eyes turned from Raine to Idonea, whose dark eyes
glared at Raine. Raine disguised the small surge of satisfaction
she felt. It had been a guess, but it had been a good one.

“Yes, Idonea,” Raine said, “what is it that you
carry?”

Idonea's reluctance was evident. “It is a soul
catcher,” she said at last.

“A soul catcher?” Elyara said, “What is significant
about that? I have a small one I keep as a souvenir.”

Raine's eyes narrowed. Soul catchers were gems that
had the ability to store life energy. There was great debate
amongst scholars whether or not they actually stole one's soul or
merely acted as a reservoir for power. Even the most common were
fairly rare. The blue and green ones could store a small amount of
energy, generally leeching it from the smaller creatures. The
yellow and violet could store a greater amount of energy, perhaps
equivalent to a small dog. The red soul catchers were extremely
rare, and only they could leech energy from a human-sized being.
Fortunately, not only were soul catchers rare they were
inefficient. Although they could sicken or kill the creature they
leeched upon, making them a potential weapon, that effect was
unpredictable. And once the soul catcher was filled, many times it
would crack or even explode. There was no known way to do anything
with the power the gem had absorbed and soul catchers were thought
to be fairly useless, more of a novelty than anything else.

“What color is the soul catcher you have?” Raine
asked quietly.

Idonea's jaw clenched. She could continue her ruse,
but there was no way she could continue this journey without
Raine.

“It is white,” she said.

Elyara gasped and both Feyden and Lorifal jerked
their heads around to Idonea.

“Ah,” Raine said, at last beginning to understand.
She had never seen a white soul catcher, nor met anyone who claimed
to. Their existence was believed to be a myth grown out of some
alchemist's speculation. But as someone who herself was considered
to be a myth, she would not dismiss the claim. It did explain a
great deal.

“And I am guessing this is no ordinary white soul
catcher.”

Elyara was baffled by Raine's words. There was no
such thing as an ordinary white soul catcher.

Raine was now certain. “You have found
Elkar'Anon.”

Idonea was like a child who had been caught in some
clever misdeed, somehow both proud and ashamed, apologetic yet
unrepentant, the artfulness of her act at war with its
wrongfulness.

“Yes,” she said, “I believe the gem I have found is
Elkar'Anon.”

“I don't understand,” Bristol said.

Raine and Idonea merely stared at one another, so
Feyden filled the gap in conversation.

“Elkar'Anon,” Feyden said, “is a mythical soul
catcher that has no limitation on the amount of power it absorbs.
And unlike other soul catchers, it is said that the gem can
transmit that power back to the one who wields it in a singular
transfer, at which time the gem will be destroyed.”

“So it is a weapon, right?” Bristol said eagerly,
missing the larger ramifications, “it can be used against the
Reaper Shards, right?”

Raine said nothing but continued to examine Idonea.
It was her opinion that Idonea was going to use that soul catcher
on something much larger than a Reaper Shard. And if that was the
case, then Idonea, too, suspected that something very powerful was
holding open the gate to the underworld. Perhaps she sought to
absorb that creature's power, an incredibly dangerous act to
attempt. But it would finally put her on equal footing with
Weynild, at least in her mind.

Raine's thoughts followed the various threads and
possibilities, trying to determine Idonea's motivations and intent.
Did Idonea think the creature was an ancient, as Weynild did? If
so, she greatly endangered Weynild by asking for her help, perhaps
even hoping to lead Weynild into a trap. This thought caused
Raine's anger to burn, which reflected in her eyes. Idonea had
watched the calculation on Raine's face and quite rightly assessed
her current train of thought.

“If I had wanted to do that, I could have used
Elkar'Anon on her directly,” Idonea said with quiet bitterness.

All looked from one to the other, aware that there
was a far deeper conversation going on between the two, even when
no words were being spoken. No one knew the “her” Idonea spoke of,
but no one was willing to ask. It was evident Raine knew exactly of
whom she was speaking.

“You could have tried,” Raine said, just as quietly.
Weynild was clever and wise and sensed things across time and
distance that even the gods missed. But Idonea's words did make
sense. It was more likely that Idonea sought to use Weynild as a
distraction, knowing that despite the dragon's outward cynicism,
Weynild's nobility would require her to put a stop to the
Hyr'rok'kin invasion.

“Well,” Lorifal snorted. “I don't really know what
the hell is going on here. And I'll take an ax any day over some
bauble. But if you think you're going into that hell-hole without
me,” he said, turning to Raine, “you're out of your mind.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Raine said to him, “I welcome
your company. But I encourage all of you to think through your
options. You have three days to decide.”

Silence settled on the camp once again. Dagna pulled
Elyara close, and despite the intense conversation and startling
revelations, the two were soon fast asleep. Lorifal followed suit,
as did Bristol and Gunnar, the latter's thoughts still spinning as
he drifted into an exhausted sleep. Finally, only Idonea, Raine,
and Feyden were awake and Idonea leaned against Gunnar, falling
into slumber.

Feyden blew out a thin stream of smoke, and the wisps
were carried away on the chill wind. “So why did you enter the Veil
before?” he asked quietly.

A look of pain crossed her features and Feyden
regretted the question. “It was a rescue mission,” she said. She
seemed at war with herself for a moment, as if she were two people
fighting for control, and then she settled into her impassivity
once more. “And it failed.”

CHAPTER 13

The Edge of the World was as breathtaking and ominous
as its title. There was no sensation of height or depth as one
approached. It seemed the Empty Land was nothing but level ground,
something close to the level of the sea. But it precipitously
dropped into nothingness at the edge of the cliffs, yielding an
instant and disorienting sensation of immense height. Alternately,
by a simple shift in perspective, one could have the sudden
sensation of immense depth, as if the ground beneath them
disappeared into a gigantic hole. The two perspectives seemed to
cycle, further increasing the sense of disorientation. It was hard
to say if they were on the edge of a mountain looking downward, or
on level land gazing into the bowels of the earth.

Raine stopped at the edge of the cliffs and picked up
a stone. She tossed it over the edge and it disappeared into the
swirling mists. There was no sound of it ever striking bottom. She
sighed and turned to the group.

“Now is the time for you to make your decisions.”

Lorifal stepped forward without hesitation. “I
already told you I was going,” he said gruffly.

Feyden was right behind him. “And someone has to keep
the dwarf in line.”

Gunnar squared his shoulders and also stepped
forward. “I started this quest with the goal of stopping the
Hyr'rok'kin. I won't stop here.”

Dagna looked down at Elyara, and they stepped forward
together. “We're in.”

Raine's eyes fell upon Idonea. “I told you before
that you didn't have a choice, but in reality you do. You can stop
here if you wish.”

“Oh no,” Idonea said, “I will do what I came to
do.”

It was not a particularly reassuring response as
Idonea had revealed her motivations were selfish, but if the
ultimate goal was achieved, few seemed to care how it was
accomplished.

Raine turned at last to Bristol, who stared over the
side into the abyss. She spoke to him gently.

“There is no shame in fear, Bristol. It's been my
experience that stupidity often masquerades as fearlessness when
the fearless don't recognize the threat they face.”

Bristol's jaw clenched. He knew full well what they
faced and he was very afraid. But he could not turn back.

“I'm in,” he said.

Feyden murmured an Elvish saying, and Raine
translated it for him.

“The brave are merely brave, but the heroic fight
despite their fear.”

She nodded to the group as a whole. “Then into the
abyss, my friends.”

There was a network of narrow ledges that traversed
the cliffs downward at a steep angle. Some of the paths appeared
old, worn smooth over eons. Some, however, appeared very new,
jutting from the rocks as if they had been cut very recently. It
had been over two centuries since Raine had descended into the Veil
and there had been only a few paths at that time. The new trails
were wider, as if they had been constructed to move a larger
contingent of people. Raine realized the ledges were not designed
to move people at all, rather they had been constructed to move the
Hyr'rok'kin. The paths weren't for those descending into the Veil,
they were for those coming out of the depths of the underworld.
This realization was troublesome as it meant lengthy planning for a
large scale invasion. It also explained the increasing number of
Hyr'rok'kin in the imperial hold, at least the how if not the
why.

It did, however, make their descent less treacherous.
Raine had not relished the thought of clinging to the side of the
mountain with her companions. Although they risked meeting the
Hyr'rok'kin head-on while occupying one of their thoroughfares, it
was likely they would hear them far before they would see them,
giving them an opportunity to divert to one of the narrower
paths.

They had been descending for hours and it did not
seem they were making any progress. Their thighs burned with the
steepness of the terrain. Although the mists would thin in places,
they did so only enough to see the adjacent paths of the cliff, all
of which were beginning to look the same. Nothing below them was
visible and after a while of descending, nothing above them was
visible, either. It was a suffocating feeling, as if everything
around them outside of their visual range had ceased to exist. The
light had subtly altered as well, and illumination seemed strangely
diffuse, as if it did not come from any singular source like the
sun. It was dim, and day seemed to have capitulated to the
beginning of night, as if it had compromised to a perennial
dusk.

Elyara stumbled and Dagna caught her arm. Raine
observed the fatigue of her companions and was in a quandary. It
had taken her two days to make the previous descent and she had
never stopped or even slowed down. Had they been required to take
the same, treacherous paths, it likely would have taken them five
or six days to reach bottom. But even with the wider thoroughfare,
it would take them at least three days to reach the border of the
Veil. They could not set up a formal camp; they would be too
exposed. But they were going to have to rest, that much was
obvious.

They came upon a stretch of path that, although not
comfortably wide, did not induce the sickening vertigo of some of
the more narrow stretches.

“We should stop here for a few hours, have a little
something to eat and rest our legs. I'm afraid we're not going to
be able to camp much the rest of our journey.”

“Hmm,” Feyden said, “camping in the Veil. Probably
not a wise decision.”

Elyara dropped her pack and sat down heavily, as did
Dagna. Lorifal, for a change, was probably more rested than most
because his stout, muscular legs were ideal for the steep
descent.

“I will take the first watch,” Raine said, “and
Lorifal the second. We'll rest for a few hours, then continue
on.”

Gunnar was grateful and sat down, massaging his legs.
“I will take my turn on the next stop.”

Considering their exposed position, hanging on the
edge of the sheer cliff with no real escape routes, it was
surprising that all but Feyden fell asleep. Perhaps it was faith in
the one keeping watch, but it worried Raine a bit. Her companions
were very tired, and their journey was about to get far more
difficult.

Raine's assessment had been correct. It took them
almost three full days to reach the bottom. This was just a guess
as day and night had been non-existent and the dim light provided
few cues as to the passage of time. But Raine's sense of time was
good even without the cues, and she estimated they had marched
downward for three full days and two full nights, stopping as
needed to rest.

“Why is it that we haven't seen any Hyr'rok'kin?”

“Hyr'rok'kin are flesh and blood,” Raine replied.
“Granted, it is foul, filthy, diseased flesh and blood, but it is
still corporal. It is why they can pass into our world with such
great ease. But the Veil has to be thin enough for them to pass
through. I am concerned if it is too thick for them, it will be too
thick for us.”