Pool of Twilight - James M. Ward [54]
She burst from the shadows of the forest a second behind Gamaliel, only to be greeted by a rather strange sight: four people were being attacked by a hedge of thornbushes.
It was the sort of thing that could happen only in the vicinity of a wizard's dwelling. Evaine had mentioned that the hedge surrounding her clearing served to keep intruders out, but Daile hadn't imagined anything quite like this. A dozen bushes had uprooted themselves from the ground and now circled menacingly around four strangers, lashing out with branches bearing long, sharp barbs.
Two of the strangers were well protected by their shining armor, but the other two-young women both-bled from several scratches on their arms. All were doing their best to hold the enchanted brambles at bay.
"I cannot dispel the magic that animates them!" cried one of the women. She was clad in a flowing white robe, now rent and torn in several places. "The wizard who created them must be strong indeed."
Fire fanned out from the second woman's outstretched fingers, but did not so much as singe the bushes. "I've heard of the expression 'a thorn in my side,' but this is ridiculous," the mage-an elf, Daile could see by her delicate, pointed ears-said with a frown.
"Take that!" one of the armored knights shouted, swinging a strangely mottled warhammer at one of the bushes. Branches snapped and splinters flew as the bush toppled to the ground. At the same time, another bush snaked out a sinuous branch to wrap around the hammer-wielding stranger's ankles, intent on dragging him to the ground. But the moment the branch touched the knight, it was instantly transformed into sticky blue cobwebs. The magical bush shuddered and contracted.
The knight spun around to attack another thornbush. Only then did Daile catch a glimpse of his face. She gasped in astonishment.
"Kern!" she cried out.
The strangers halted momentarily in their fighting, looking up at Daile and Gamaliel in surprise.
Daile hadn't seen the young man in many years, not since he visited the Valley of the Falls with his parents one summer, but she could never have mistaken him. It was Kern Desanea, son of her father's close friends, Tarl and Shal of the city of Phlan.
"Gamaliel, can you call off Evaine's defenses?" she asked desperately.
The great cat shifted back into his barbarian form and regarded her for a scant second before nodding. "Surrahk!" he cried. Immediately, the thornbushes shuffled obediently back to the hedge, sinking their roots into the soil once more. They quivered briefly, then were still.
The four wanderers lowered their weapons gratefully.
Kern's eyebrows knit themselves in concentration. "Daile?" he asked tentatively.
She laughed in answer, throwing her arms around him in a joyous embrace. He returned the gesture warmly.
"Daile, what are you doing here?" he asked, taking a step back to look at Daile.
"Saving you, it would seem," she laughed. "It's a good thing we came along when we did. I'd hate to be the one to have to tell Tarl and Shal that their son was beaten in battle by a rosebush."
"At least they wouldn't have to send flowers to the funeral," Listle added with a snort. The young paladin-aspirant shot the elven mage an annoyed glance.
Kern's armored companion stepped forward then, raising a gauntleted hand.
"It has been some time, Gamaliel."
The knight's voice carried a tinny echo that made Daile's heart skip a beat in her chest.
"It has indeed, Miltiades," Gamaliel answered, a rare look of wonderment crossing the usually stoic face of the barbarian. "Evaine will be pleased to see you again, as am I."
Slowly the knight raised the visor of his ornate helm.
Daile clamped a hand over her mouth in horror. It wasn't the face of a man she found herself staring at, but instead a hollow-eyed skull wearing a perpetual, lipless grin.
"Don't worry," the silver-eyed elf whispered to Daile with a conspiratorial wink. "He's much friendlier than he looks."
Daile could only nod, hoping the elf was right.
* * * * *
Evaine had forgotten just how much she