From Darkness Won - Jill Williamson [84]
Shung, Kurtz, Cole, and the knights escorted Achan through the soldiers to his wagon where Achan dressed himself. Then he flopped down on one of the sofas. Shung?
The wagon lurched as Shung climbed inside. Sir Eagan lifted Matthias through the doorway then entered himself.
“I’m going to keep looking,” Achan said.
Shung nodded. “Shung will keep watch.”
All day Achan searched Sitna Manor from the Veil, but he found no sign of Vrell Sparrow. He did discover that Poril had gone south with Lord Nathak. So he looked through Poril’s eyes.
The old cook sat beside the driver on a cart that followed a few dozen horses and a litter at night. A lantern swung from a post on the wagon seat, dangling behind the driver’s head. Achan counted four more lanterns ahead that seemed to float through the dark night.
No, it couldn’t be night already, could it?
Achan left Poril’s mind and searched each face in the party. He found Lord Nathak and his wife in the litter, and a wooden box in the back of Poril’s wagon.
A coffin.
After a long moment to raise his courage, Achan peeked inside, but the wooden lid blocked all light and he could not see anything within. If Sparrow had died, though, he would not be able to sense her. And he could.
Sparrow, please speak to me. Tell me you are not in that coffin. Please?
After a long wait with no answer, he came back to himself. Shung met his gaze briefly. Matthias sat on the floor with his back against Shung’s legs, dozing. Sir Eagan sat at the table reading a scroll. Achan remained silent, knowing they’d pass by Sitna at some point this day—maybe already had. His old home, the place where Sparrow had to be.
It made him nauseated.
He glanced back to Shung and froze. For where Matthias had been sitting, there was Sparrow, her silky black hair spilling into Shung’s lap. The man combed it with his thick, burned fingers, a half smile on his hairy face.
Achan’s breath quickened. “What are you doing?”
Shung raised a bushy eyebrow and grunted a question.
Achan stood up so fast his head scraped the ceiling. Shung had no right to touch Sparrow. Achan bent down and lifted her into his arms. She was lighter than he remembered. He tucked her head under his chin and breathed in the smell of roses. “Sir Eagan, we must get Sparrow something to eat. I fear she’s half starved.”
The wagon rolled through a rut and Achan lurched. Rather than try to keep his balance, he fell back onto his sofa, cradling Sparrow in his arms.
The movement woke her. She locked her cat-like eyes onto his. “Are you all right, sir?”
Achan frowned. For the voice did not belong to Sparrow but to Matthias. He was holding the boy on his lap. He swallowed, feeling like a fool, and set the boy beside him on the sofa. He looked at Shung, and then to Sir Eagan.
Sir Eagan regarded him warily. “Are you well, Your Highness?”
Achan opened his mouth to answer, then lunged for the drape and pulled it open.
A starless black sky hung overhead as if it were the middle of the night, though Achan knew it could only be late morning. Pig snout. That explained the waking dream.
They had entered Darkness again.
14
Noam steered the cart off the dirt road, through a field of waist high grass along two trampled wheel tracks.
A road seldom traveled. Averella was thankful to be gone from Sitna Manor. She still did not understand what had happened to her, but these people meant her no harm.
She floated alongside Kopay, one hand resting on his back, though she could not feel him and knew her hand would pass through him if she lowered it. Noam had hitched Kopay and another horse to this cart and filled it with supplies. It also carried Averella’s body, covered in blankets as if she were merely asleep. Gren sat in the cart beside her body. Harnu sat up on the driver’s seat with Noam.
Since dawn they had traveled west, toward the dark horizon. Averella hoped they would not meet a storm.
Noam had apparently fixed his gaze