The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [30]
“No, Xu’sasar, I know nothing of the world,” he said at last. “Enlighten me.”
“This is the night,” Xu’sasan said. “Even if it was dawn that we sought, it would not come to us. Dawn must be found. It is the way of the final lands. In life, we pass through all times, the world always changing around us. Not so in the final lands. The deep of night is a place, as is the dawn and the dusk. We must move through the night, and we must pay for our passage in blood.”
“The Huntsman?”
“He may return. He is a spirit of the land and not easily destroyed. Despite the silence all around us, the Huntsman and his hounds are not the only creatures that walk beneath this moon. The spirits of the wild and the spirits of the past both watch us, and either may send deadly challenges to test our worth.”
“Wonderful,” Daine said. “With that in mind, why don’t you keep a watch on our left flank?”
“Flank?” the girl replied, puzzled. Her knowledge of the Common tongue was remarkable but apparently not perfect.
“Follow. Watch. That way?”
The dark elf clicked her tongue. “I understand.” She slipped away, leaving Daine alone with Lei.
“What do you think?” Daine said. “She does seem to know quite a bit, but I have a little trouble taking the word of a woman who wishes we were all dead.”
“I still think it’s a coincidence,” Lei replied, shifting direction again. “The sulatar elves thought the realm of fire was some sort of paradise. Thelanis touches Eberron in many places. I know dozens of stories tied to the fey realm. That’s all this is—stories her people have developed through planar travel, twisted with the passage of time. She’s not lying. She’s just seeing things through a lens of superstition.”
“And this whole business of finding dawn?”
“I think she’s right about that. Look at the moon. We’ve been walking for hours, and it hasn’t moved at all. Nothing’s changed. I don’t know about buying passage with blood, or where my staff is leading us. But it knows where we need to go, so I say follow.”
Daine looked up to study the moon. He watched the sky, then frowned and grabbed Lei’s shoulder, pulling her to a halt.
“What?” she said crossly.
“Didn’t you say that we should watch out for floating lanterns earlier?”
“Yes?”
“Look up.”
A handful of lights drifted across the firmament, a careful, controlled flight unlike the swift motion of a shooting star. These lights were set against the darkness of the sky, and it was impossible to judge size, whether they were enormous orbs coasting miles above the ground or tiny sparks floating just out of reach. Whatever they were, they were moving toward the group.
“Cover!” Daine yelled. He threw himself against a massive chunk of stone, pulling Lei with him.
A trio of stars streaked past them. Now the lights were moving closer to the ground, and Daine could see them more clearly. The brilliant glow made it difficult to focus directly on the orbs, but Daine could see that they were balls of energy, approximately the size of his head. Each orb moved with the speed of a hunting owl, flying with eerie precision. Daine held his ground, keeping his back to the stone and his blade before him. Next to him, the darkwood staff sang quietly; Daine couldn’t understand the whispered words, but he knew a warning when he heard one.
The orbs swept past Daine’s position. They rose in the air, and he thought these fallen stars were going to return to the sky. Then they changed direction, shifting velocity and course to streak toward Daine and Lei.
The orbs were fast—but Daine’s allies were faster. Before the spheres could close the distance, Xu’sasar appeared, loping across the plain and leaping into the air in an astonishing arc that seemed to defy gravity. Shadows writhed around her fists as she struck at one of the fallen stars. As Xu’sasar’s momentum carried her back to earth, three arrows cut through the night.