Spellfire - Ed Greenwood [11]
"We should tarry until this mist passes," Rymel said, his bard's voice and gray eyes serious for the first time in Shandril's memory. Tiny droplets of mist hung in the curls of his short beard.
"Aye," Ferostil replied, his voice low and wary.
"And yet-that cry we heard. If we wait, who knows what might hunt us? Surround and entrap us, and we not able to even see them until too late?"
His words left a deafening silence. Shandril met Burlane's eyes, trying to look calm. A trace of a smile crossed his lips as they traded glances, but his calmness was an act too. Shandril felt grateful, and suddenly she was less afraid.
Delg the dwarf spoke. "I second that. I cannot abide waiting a whole night through in this damp, doing nothing. I say push on, and we'll be the sooner out of it!" The light was growing dim. One of the horses snorted and shifted again, and Delg went to it and spoke soothingly.
"What say you, Thail?" Burlane asked quietly.
"It would be more prudent to stop and wait for morning and the lifting of this mist," the wizard replied calmly. "But I, too, would hate such waiting."
"Shandril?" Burlane asked in the same voice, and Shandril looked up in surprise, thrilled to be considered an equal.
"I'd rather risk stumbling into danger than waiting the night," she answered as calmly and steadily as she could. She heard several vigorous murmurs of agreement.
Burlane said simply, "We go on. Better to be all awake and expecting the worst than to be all asleep but two."
Suddenly, they heard a soft slithering sound, then a loud "plop," as something entered the lake nearby.
Shandril's skin crawled. But the company could see nothing. Cautious minutes later they moved on, and soon they came to a place where the long grass was flattened in a wide swath as if by the passage of some great bulk, and flecked with trails of green-white slime. The horses shied from the area and had to be pulled across, snorting and rolling their eyes and lifting their feet as though surrounded by coiling snakes. The company hastened on as quickly and quietly as possible. Later they heard something scuttle away from their path, but again met no creature. They went on as night drew down.
At length, the sounds of wide waters moving before them could be heard, and Thail, probing with his staff, barred their way. "Open water." he said in a low voice.
"Either we have turned about and headed into the lake," said Rymel, "or the shore has doubled back before us, or- and this seems most likely-we have reached the Semberflow, where you intended to camp," he said to Burlane. In the twilit gloom they heard their leader reply, "Aye, it is likely. I will look."
Pale light flared as he unwrapped the Bright Spear and bore it past them. The bard went with him, passing the reins of his horse wordlessly into Shandril’s hands. She clung to two sets of reins in anxious silence, pleased to be so entrusted, and yet apprehensI’ve. If something startled the horses, she knew she lacked the strength to hold them.
The two were a long time looking, and even Thail had begun to step about anxiously before the Bright Spear's radiance could be seen again in the thick violet and gray mist that enshrouded them. Burlane stepped back among them, looking pleased.
"It is the Semberflow," he announced. "We camp here. We cannot see to cross."
"A fire? Lanterns?" asked Delg. Burlane shook his head. "We dare not. Double watch the night through-Shandril and Delg, then Ferostil and Rymel, and I'll see the dawn. Make no needless noise.
Don't let the horses lie down-it's too damp, and they'll take the chill."
The band quickly unburdened and fed the horses, shared cold bread and cheese, and rolled themselves in cloaks and blankets. Shandril found Delg in the darkness. "How can I keep watch if I can't see?" she whispered. Delg grunted. "We sit down in the middle of everything, ladymaid. Back to back, d'you see?
We gI’ve each other a pinch or an elbow now and then to keep awake. Three such, or