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Elena roughly placed her brushes and combs back into the wagon. She dumped the
horse s water bucket, slightly splashing Er ril with the contents.  Yes,
you re a keen observer of people s feelings.
As she stomped off toward the spread of bedrolls, her fingers wandered to the
lump in her pocket. The acorn was a reminder that looks could deceive. The
acorn appeared tiny and weak, but within its shell lurked the potential for a
mighty oak.
Er ril could not see that not in Mogweed, not in herself.
 What is the matter with that child? she heard Er ril grumble behind her.
Nothing, she answered silently. Nothing at all.
Er ril stood with his back toward the camp s fires. In the Distance, the light
of the flames lapped to the fringes of the forest, but its heat barely reached
his position. So far the creatures of the Horde seemed content to stay within
their dead wood. Still it would be unwise for his band to let its guard down.
Behind Er ril, to protect against any marauding spiders, the group of bedrolls
lay within a protective ring of small campfires. Standing just beyond their
circle of warmth, Er ril wore a deerskin jacket with a furred collar against
the late evening s cold as he stood watch. Morning seemed a false promise this
dark moonless night. Even the stars were just whispers poking through a thin
cloudy haze that had blown in at nightfall.
Unblinking, he studied the forest, trying to pierce its mysteries. The
companions had argued well into the evening on the best course through the
wood. They had all quickly decided that turning back was not an option.
According to the wolf, the other trails were swamped with snowmelt and who was
to say that these other paths weren t similarly blocked by corruption? No,
they had to risk the wood. Yet doubt ran like ice in Er ril s veins. The child
was ultimately his responsibility.
 We must go forward, Tol chuk suddenly said beside him, as if reading his
mind. The og re had been sitting so still and quiet, like a crouching boulder,
that Er ril had almost forgotten the hulking creature was there.
 I know, Er ril said, thankful to speak aloud what troubled him.  But are we
right? We could always go
back to Krai s people and wait until the other passes open.
 No, this be the correct path.
The certainty in the og re s voice drew Er ril s eyes.  How can you be so sure
?
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Tol chuk shifted his thick body, his joints creaking like breaking saplings.
In the firelight, Er ril saw the og re pull open his thigh pouch and remove a
large object. Like a fired coal, it glowed a deep red between Tol chuk s
claws. Er ril recognized the stone: the Heart, as Tol chuk had named the large
crystal, a chunk of precious heart-stone mined from deep in the og re s lands.
Er ril had seen the crystal before, but never aglow as it was this night. His
gaze was drawn to it; its gentle radiance seemed to penetrate deep within him.
Er ril found his voice strangely hushed as he tried to understand the og re s
revelation.  What s the significance of& of the Heart? he asked.
Tol chuk became silent, a boulder again. Only the white flumes
WIT CH STORM
flaring from his nostrils into the chill air indicated he still lived.
Finally, he spoke again.  I would tell you something, Er ril. Something I have
told no other.
 What is it?
 Long ago, one of my blood ancestors, the Oathbreaker, betrayed the land most
foully. And as punishment, the land cursed our people. The og re lowered his
face in shame, his back bending in anguish.
Er ril had never seen Tol chuk so pained. Uncomfortable with the og re s
display, Er ril found his eyes drifting back to the forest s edge, but he knew
he could not so easily ignore his companion s distress. He spoke into the
silence.  What did this Oathbreaker of yours do?
 No one knows. Tol chuk held up the glowing stone.  But this be our curse.
The stone holds our clan s spirits of the dead until they can travel to the
next world. But the land laid a corrupt seed, a black worm called the Bane,
within the heart of the stone. It now eats our spirits instead of letting them
travel beyond.
Er ril grimaced. A foul story indeed.
 I be the last descendant of this Oathbreaker, doomed by my mixed blood never
to bear offspring.
Prophecy says only I can lift this curse upon our people s spirits and destroy
the Bane.
Er ril glanced back to the heartstone, trying to pierce its glow and spy the
black worm inside. He could not see what the og re described.  This Bane& How
are you supposed to get rid of it?
 I must discover what the Oathbreaker did and correct it. Tol chuk lowered
the large crystal back to his lap.
 I thought no one knows what this ancestor of yours did.
 That be true. But I was given the Heart as a beacon. It guides me where I
must go.
Er ril digested this information, beginning to understand.  The glow ?
 It calls me forward. Leads me where I need to be. First to the
shape-shifters, then to the girl. After I
joined you all, the stone grew dark and quiet so I know we all must stay
together. But with the first melt of snow, it began to call again, worse as
each day passed. Now it urges like hooks in my heart. We must not delay
.
Er ril studied the stone for several moments in silence.  I believe you, he
finally said and turned back to face the corrupt forest. Though the og re s
words had helped steady Er ril s resolve on their course, they did little to
ease the fear around his heart. Stone or not, JAMES CLEMENS
prophecy did little to protect one from a spider s bite.  But, Tol chuk, are
you quite sure of your stone s pull?
As answer, the og re lifted the heartstone toward the dark wood. The crystal
flared brighter, competing now with the flames of the hearths.  We have no
other path. We must travel through the spiders forest. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]