From Darkness Won - Jill Williamson [163]
“Are you mad? It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Averella wanted to ask if it were truly worse than marrying that Riga fellow, but she held her tongue.
She and Gren found a space between four trees and started to set up a camp. They shook out Peripaso’s bundle and hung the furs in the tree to air. No one seemed to want them once they were fished out of the plunge pool.
Jax hoisted Bran onto the shore. He rolled on the moss and got to his feet, clutching his forearm, which was coated in blood.
Averella ran toward him, opening her satchel on the way. “What happened?”
Bran sucked a breath between his teeth. “My breastplate caught on something in that last tunnel. It twisted, hit the wall, and sliced into my arm. Perhaps it would have been better to nearly drown.”
Averella sank to her knees on the mossy ground. “It’s deep.” She rinsed the wound, added some salve, and bandaged it. Then she strapped his arm across his chest in a sling so that his hand rested over his heart. “Make sure your hand stays up here. You need to keep your arm elevated until the wound stops bleeding.”
Bran paid her with a wide smile. “Thank you, Vrella. I’m sure it will heal.”
When everyone was accounted for, Averella led Gren into the trees to a place lit enough to see in the torchlight but concealed enough from the men to remove their clothing. They stripped out of their heavy dresses, wrung them out, and reluctantly put them back on. Then they returned to the shore and sat with the men, nibbling reekat meat.
Gren rocked back and forth, holding her knees. “Are we safe now?”
But before anyone could answer, a wolf’s howl rang out from the north. Distant, but close enough to raise the hairs on Averella’s arms.
A second wolf answered, this one from the south and very close. Averella twisted around to see a black shadow standing on the opposite bank of the plunge pool, watching them with glittering eyes.
31
Achan lay on his bedroll that night in his tent, humming Yumikak’s song. He could hear the men singing in the distance, a chorus of voices attempting to block the tricks of Darkness. The familiar clicking of wood over his tent sent a chill up his arms. Darkness called to his worst imaginings.
One more day of travel, and they would reach Edom Gate. Then another day to Noiz and the high ground there. But how many days until the battle would begin?
A man screamed. The side of Achan’s tent shook. Achan sat up, and Shung scrambled to his side, dagger drawn. Manu ran out the door.
Moments later, Sir Caleb entered with a lantern. “It’s all right. Manu got him under control.”
“Got who?” Achan asked.
“Just a soldier who thought Esek slept in here. I suspect Darkness is taking its toll on the men.”
Which was why Achan had been keeping his mind filled with Sparrow’s song.
The next day, if a black sky could be called day, they rode through the trees until Achan lost the feeling in his backside. They came upon Edom Gate suddenly. One moment Achan was slapped in the face by another scratchy branch, the next Dove had carried him into a clearing. The torchlight from the procession lit up their path. They traveled a road that twisted along a narrow gorge. Mountain cliffs rose on both sides like the walls of an outdoor corridor.
Ahead, an iron gate stood ten levels high and was built into the cliffs on both sides. The soldiers in front of Achan trickled through a smaller gate within the massive one. Soldiers stood at the gate, watching with bored eyes. They wore grey and black uniforms with a crest emblazoned on their chests: a wall before a setting sun.
Inside, the procession led Achan into a clearing, a pass between the mountain cliffs on either side. Hundreds of tents were already set up. Men and giants stood along the road, cheering their arrival. The Mârad army, no doubt. Achan nodded to the men and glanced up to the steep mountain walls enclosing the clearing. He could see that about two dozen stone structures had been built into the rock wall. No fortress at all. Achan followed his guards to a place where some men were erecting