The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [48]
Pierce was holding him, pulling him away. “She is alive, captain. You cannot help her.”
“Why won’t she wake up?”
“I do not know. But her condition is stable. Nothing has changed since I removed her from the water.”
Glancing back at Lei, Daine saw a dark shadow kneeling over her … Xu’sasar. Pulling free from Pierce, Daine smashed into the drow girl, striking her full on with his shoulder. She was caught completely off guard. She fell over Lei and barely kept from slipping into the water herself.
Daine’s sword was in his hand, blazing with the fire of his fury. “What have you done?” he said.
Xu’sasar rolled to her feet, crouching on the narrow strip of shore. The bone wheel was in her hand, and even in his frenzy Daine noticed the drops of greenish fluid coating the tips of the tooth-like prongs. “I have saved you,” she said. “Had you entered the river, you would have suffered a fate far worse.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Did you not listen to the Keeper of Secrets? The river is knowledge. The river is truth. It chose to bathe her in the waters, and ordered you to remain on the shore.”
“And what were you doing just now?”
“The dangers of the land are many, and my people must learn to heal as well as kill. It was I who tended you after our battle with Colchyn. I simply wished to study your companion, and make certain I knew what afflicted her.”
The rage that burned within Daine was dying now, the furious energy fading even as the gleaming blade of his sword became mere metal. “Tell me.”
“I have,” Xu’sasar said. “This battle is within her. Only she can fight it.”
“There’s got to be something we can do!”
“You can protect her body, but this battle is in her mind. It is an honor to be chosen in this way. If she survives, she will be the stronger for it.”
Daine’s anger grew at if she survives, but he fought back the fire. Xu’sasar wasn’t to blame for this.
Pierce stood next to Daine. His deep, familiar voice was an emotional anchor. “We have few alternatives, Captain. Her lifeforce is stable. I believe that our best course of action would be to find sustenance and shelter. It has been a long journey, and you must rest as well.”
Pierce was correct, of course. Even aside from Lei’s predicament, Daine knew his limits, and he was struggling with them. “We’re not staying here. I want her away from that snake and this water. There’s got to be something defensible around here.”
“Look.” Pierce pointed at the stone pillar the serpent had used as its anchor. It took Daine a moment to realize what Pierce was talking about, and then he saw it.
A path.
To this point they had wandered through untamed land. The pillars of the serpent were the first signs of civilization they had seen. But there was no question about it. Traces of a trail could be seen at the base of the pillar, growing wider and clearer as it went deeper into the woods.
Daine stood over Lei, his sword still in his hand. “See what you can find,” he told Pierce.
He turned to the drow woman. There was no guile in her eyes, and he found that he believed her—that she had done what she thought was best for him. But his anger still needed an outlet, and at the moment, he felt a fire burn within him whenever he looked at the dark elf. Lei, Pierce … he knew what to expect from them. He knew what they would do. Which was far more than he could say for Xu’sasar. “You,” he said, perhaps more gruffly that he had to. “You don’t leave my sight, is that understood?”
Xu’sasar looked away and blew out her breath. “I am swifter than the man of metal, my steps are just as silent,” she said. “My eyes are sharper when the moon is high, and this land is bathed by moonlight. It is foolish