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By Root 316 0

she backed Farenth away from the precipice. The slender bridge that arched over the chasm was made of black stone. Mari did not need Morhion to tell her that it had been forged with magic. On the far side of the bridge stood two colossi-gigantic statues hewn of basalt-forming a sinister gateway with outstretched arms. The towering statues were cracked and pitted, but Mari recognized their eyeless faces and spiny crests. They were shadevari. She shivered, gathering her forest green cloak tightly around her shoulders. There could be no doubt now that the ancient beings were inextricably linked with the Shadowking.

"Do you think Caledan has been here?" she asked, her voice breaking the brooding silence.

"There are no traces of his passing," Morhion answered "but that means nothing. He has left no sign for a long time-not since the last one in Soubar."

"My father has been here," Kellen said, his voice filled with quiet certainty. "Not long ago."

Mari opened her mouth to question Kellen's statement then bit her tongue. After their battle with the shadow dragon at the ruined tower, she knew there was much about Kellen she could not possibly understand. "Then we had better get moving."

"I'll go scout out the bridge and make certain that it's safe," Ferret said. He dismounted, heading for the stone arch. A few minutes later he returned, looking vaguely queasy.

"What's wrong?" Mari asked. "Will the bridge hold us?"

"It shouldn't even be able to hold itself." Ferret said with a shudder. "By all rights, that spindly excuse for an engineering project should have collapsed into the gorge centuries ago. Some sort of magic is holding it up."

"It will bear us, then," Morhion said in satisfaction.

"I suppose so," Ferret replied grudgingly. "Unless the enchantment that glues it together conveniently decides to come unstuck just as we're crossing." He shot the mage an uneasy look. "Magic doesn't spoil after a few centuries, does it?"

"It can," Morhion said nonchalantly.

"Thanks for the reassurance," Ferret grumbled.

Astride Tenebrous, Morhion volunteered to be the first to cross the ancient bridge. Mari came next, followed by Kellen, while Ferret brought up the rear-muttering something about "demented, suicidal wizards." As she guided Farenth onto the narrow span, Mari noticed a single transparent crystal set among the bridge's black stones. She asked Morhion what it was. "I think it is a keystone." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It is the magic of such keystones that keeps the arch from collapsing."

Cautiously, they continued across the bridge. The horses snorted nervously, their hooves skidding on the smooth onyx stone. One slip would send horse and rider plummeting into the chasm. As they passed the center of the span, Mari noticed a second crystal embedded in the bridge-another one of the magical keystones. Suddenly, a blast of cold air snatched at Mari's cloak, and Morhion looked up, his long golden hair flying wildly back from his brow. The horses clattered to a halt. In front of the mage, a dark form coalesced out of thin air. Serafi. Mari's heart froze as she thought of the most recent pact Morhion had forged with the spectral knight. The mage's voice was a mixture of loathing and revulsion.

"What do you want, Serafi?"

The dusky knight bowed mockingly in midair. "Why, as always, I wish to help, Morhion. You are being followed. Your pursuer is a half-elf, a skilled tracker. I know not who he is, but he comes to kill you-which, of course, I cannot allow."

"K'shar." Mari whispered the name of the Harper Hunter. "How far behind us is he?"

"A few minutes at most," the ghostly knight said coolly.

"You must prepare yourselves to encounter him."

Morhion clenched a fist in anger. "If you're feeling so benevolent, Serafi, why don't you dispatch him for us?" The spirit's burning eyes flashed. "Would that I could exert my will so directly upon the world of the living," he hissed. "But my incorporeal form allows it not. You must deal with the Hunter yourselves." With that, the spectral knight blurred into a swirl of dark mist,