Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [53]
She pulled a little cloth bag from her pocket and held it up. “Here’s a pouch to keep them in. I had Anya make two because I knew you’d find treasure too.”
Smiling, he tucked the emeralds into the bag. He strung it over his neck and lucked it beneath his tunics. The stones felt small and knobby against his chest, tiny talismen of his sister’s love.
He gathered her into his arms and hugged her tight. “I love you, little sister.”
She hugged him back, tender and small in his arms. She was crying. “Oh, Caelan—”
Through the quietness of the forest came the sound of distant thunder. Frowning, Caelan slowly straightened to his feet and turned his head to listen.
Another sound came, a rumbling bugle note unlike anything he had ever heard before. His breath stopped in his lungs, and he was suddenly afraid.
His heartbeat started pounding faster, harder. No, he thought. This could not be happening.
He heard the sound again, a trumpet call of disaster, eerie and ominous, closer than the first. He had never heard such a noise before, yet instinctively he recognized it. Old stories, told around the hearth, flashed through his mind.
“No,” he said aloud.
Beside him, Lea looked up at the sky. “What is that noise?”
His paralysis fell away. Caelan grabbed her by the shoulders, swinging her bodily around. “Get inside the cave. Hide there, and don’t come out.”
She stared at him in bewilderment, making no move to obey. “But why—”
Gripping her arm, he ran back to the cave, pushing her as he went. He picked up the food basket and tossed it in the cave, along with his cloak and pack. “Hurry!” he said, fear ragged in his voice. “Don’t ask questions. Just do as I say!”
He pushed her toward the cave too hard, making her stumble and fall. Her face puckered up, and tears filled her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The dragons trumpeted again. The sound filled Caelan with panic. On a sudden shift of the wind, he smelled smoke.
“Gault above, can’t you hear that?” he shouted at her. “The raiders have found the hold. I’ve got to help them—”
Lea’s eyes widened. “Thyzarenes?”
“I think so.” He was busy yanking off his heavy outer tunic. Wadding it up into a ball, he tossed it inside the cave and drew the dagger from his belt.
“No!” She flung herself against him, gripping hard. “Don’t go. You mustn’t go!”
He tried to pull away, but she was crying. Caelan hesitated, his mind tearing in all directions. He was afraid to go back to the hold, afraid of what he might find. His instincts were yelling at him to run for his life, run with Lea and hide deep in the safety of the forest.
And yet, how could he abandon the others, knowing they were defenseless and unprotected from an attack? The walls couldn’t keep out dragons.
“I must help them,” he said and gave his sister a shake. “Lea, listen to me. Listen! You must be brave now. Hide in the cave until it’s safe. I’ll come back for you.”
She shook her head. “They’re going to kill everyone—”
“No! I’ll help them. I can fight, with this.” He held up the dagger, his body thrumming with protectiveness. “Now stay here. You’ll be safe as long as you hide.”
Her lip quivered. She stared at him through her tears. “Don’t go, Caelan. Don’t go! I’ll never see you again!”
He rose on his toes, listening to the strange noises. The forest had gone silent with alarm. He could feel it around him. There was no time to waste with a distraught child.
“Sweetness, be brave. I have to help Father.”
“I can help them too!” she said, refusing to let go of his sleeve. “Let me go. I’ll wish the raiders away.”
“No, you’re better off here.”
Even as he said the words, he wondered. What was he and one dagger against the savages? What if he couldn’t come back for her? How could she fare out here at night in the forest, unprotected? Would she have enough sense to go to E’raumhold? Or would she perish of cold, starvation, and the wolves?
His resolve almost folded, but then he heard the hold bell ringing out an alarm. He gulped in air. “Get in the cave.”
“But they’re ringing the bell for us to come back.