Frostfell_ The Wizards - Mark Sehestedt [123]
Lendri considered this a moment, then said, "I think you should heed the lady's advice. Do not fear for Erun."
"Gyaidun?" said Amira.
He looked to her.
"The night you left the encampment, you made it all the way to Akhrasut Neth, and from there all the way to here. So far so fast, that's… impossible. Even for you."
Gyaidun held up his right fist. A ring of some dark red metal-copper perhaps-was on his little finger. Runes, in the same style as those she'd seen on the belkagen and the omahet, were carved along its surface. "Before I left," he said, "the belkagen gave me this. It performs the same magic that you used on the steppe, able to send me great distances in the blink of an eye."
"Will you keep it?" asked Lendri.
"I have walked all my life," said Gyaidun. "I see no reason to stop now. Still, I might have need of it again."
* * * * *
With the sun gone, all warmth left the air. Cold seemed to radiate from the endless miles of snow, and the northern breeze had the bite of ice. The pyres smoldered, giving off a little heat, but their flames were gone, so that the only light was the thick sliver of moon and the hundreds of stars surrounding it. But with so much snow still on the ground, the land around them reflected the light of moon and stars, so that Amira could see surprisingly well. Still, the Vil Adanrath kept vigil over their dead, and Amira and her companions sat huddled in their cloaks and blankets next to the great pile of ashes.
Durja huddled inside Gyaidun's cloak, and Mingan crouched at Lendri's feet. Erun and Jalan slept in their blankets between the men and Amira. No one had spoken in some time.
"We wait here till morning?" asked Amira.
"Yes," said Lendri. "At sunrise, we help the wind to scatter the ashes. You may sleep if you wish. I will keep the vigil."
"I'm not tired," said Amira, and she was surprised to find it true. After the past several tendays, she ought to have been exhausted, but a growing apprehension filled her and would not let her mind relax.
"So," said Gyaidun. "What now?"
"What?"
"You have your son. What now?"
Amira looked down at Jalan, breathing steadily inside his blankets. "Jalan has been through something that no boy his age should ever have to experience. He's alive, and I have him back. The rest…" Her lips curved in a sad smile. "There will be time for the rest later."
Gyaidun said nothing. Listening to the fire smoldering, Amira found the lapse in the conversation unsettling.
"I… I owe you both a great debt. Without you and the belkagen-and the Vil Adanrath, I suppose-I never would have been able to get my son back. If there is ever anything-"
"So you're leaving, then?" said Gyaidun, anger in his voice. "That's it?"
"What did you expect?" said Amira. "Jalan deserves a good home, a safe home, a family that cares for him-"
"And he has this in Cormyr?"
Stung, Amira turned her gaze fixed to the snowfield. "What are you asking?"
"Are you-you and Jalan-returning to Cormyr?"
"If we don't, they'll come looking for us. My family might well leave us for dead, but the war wizards… they'll come."
"And you will go with them?"
She looked back to him. "I won't fight my own people, Gyaidun."
He returned her gaze, and in the moonlight she could see a small smile crack his stern features. "You won't have to, Amira."
He motioned with his head to Lendri and Mingan and patted the long knife in the sheath at his belt.
Amira's eyebrows rose, and she looked at Lendri. The elf said nothing but gave her a feral grin that did nothing to hide the wolf in his nature. Again he looked on her with those predator's eyes, the moon and starlight catching therein and shining out, but for the first time Amira did not feel caught in the wolf gaze. She felt part of the pack.
She took a deep breath and looked back out on the endless miles of rolling steppe, now covered in snow. For the first time since she'd come to this land, she took in its beauty. It was a hard land, Lendri had said, and it bred hard children. But right now Amira was almost awestruck by