The Prince of Exiles (The Exile Series) (40 page)

Tomaz wasn’t hearing him though – Goldwyn’s death had shocked the big man so badly his normal composure had cracked. Raven stepped closer and only just stopped himself from slapping him.

“
Tomaz!
”

The word cracked out of his mouth like a whip, and the big man’s eyes finally focused on Raven.

“I need you to reach through the Ox,” he said, as slow as he dared, feeling like every wasted second was a missed chance to catch his brother –
to grab him and tear him apart! –
but knowing it would be useless unless Tomaz understood. “Reach through the Talisman, call on the strength you have, and send it through the Blade to me.”

“We’ve never tried it,” said Tomaz, still having trouble focusing.

“
We don’t have time Tomaz!”
The words were bare sounds, hissing from him – he felt Leah’s life moving away, already giving chase. He
needed
to be with her! He wouldn’t lose her too!

“Reach through the Talisman and give me the strength!”

Others were now looking at them, and the air in the room felt deadly and crooked, like a twisted knife.

Tomaz took a steadying breath and closed his eyes.

In a flash, red light lit the room, boiling out from beneath the giant’s black clothing like molten earth, searing the eyes of those nearby, making them cry out in pain and alarm.

“
SEND IT THROUGH THE BLADE TOMAZ!”

Tomaz’s eyes opened and gave him one last frightened look, and then he let go of the breath he’d taken in, and the glaring red light disappeared.

There was a moment of confusion where everyone looked up wonderingly in the sudden darkness, and then the red light reemerged, shining like a sun, as Tomaz unsheathed Aemon’s Blade and held it in his hands.

Raven felt his entire body surge with strength, limbs flooded with power. He locked eyes with Tomaz; the giant’s face was stark and grim, every hard plane standing out sharp and bright in the light of the Blade. Here stood a primordial god, seeking death and destruction, moved only by rage and revenge.

“Kill him,” the giant growled.

Raven’s hatred rose up in him again, and he gave it free rein. He was off and out the main door of the room before he knew it – racing down the street, knocking over Kindred left and right. There was a bellow of rage, and he heard Tomaz come out after them and roar into the night sky, sending him racing even faster, chasing the life sign of his brother, the veins on his body pulsing with a faint red light as the strength flowed through him from the sword in Tomaz’s hands.

Leah had a head start on him, but with the strength he’d been given by Tomaz, he quickly found her; she was astride a horse, racing through the city to the north, going nearly as fast as Raven was.
 
They were on the outskirts of Vale now, and the streets were nearly deserted. The sound of his boots and the hooves of Leah’s horse were lost in the cry of a howling wind that sprang up from nowhere; it pushed them on, hastening them to speed, as if the very lands of the Kindred were urging them toward revenge.

The horse was good – she would be able to stay with him much better this way. He came up beside her just as they had reached the edge of the city.

“Follow me! He isn’t far now – but he’s heading north! Whatever I do,
follow me!
He’s the Fox – he has luck on his side!”

She nodded once, eyes full of pain and anguish, and the sight of that nearly broke him, but he forced himself to go on, forced his body to move.

They flew through the dark night. Snow began to fall from the black clouds above, light and feathery, blown about them in heady swirls and strange shifting silhouettes that would have had any other tracker lost and dazed in a matter of seconds.

But Raven flew through the night unhindered. The light of his brother was bright and strong in his mind; the Fox was far ahead of them, almost out of reach, but they were gaining.

An hour passed that way; Raven and Leah, rage driving them, both barely able to see but for what bare sliver of light was left from the hidden moon and stars. They were racing north now along a long road … a road that Raven shouldn’t have been able to see.

And that’s when he realized the true extent of the loss the Kindred had suffered. That’s when he realized what had been missing from Elder Goldwyn’s body, what he hadn’t felt when he’d held the Elder to him as he died.

Tiffenal had stolen the Elder’s
sambolin.

And now, as they ran through a field of swaying wheat that had been abandoned long ago and left to run wild, Raven realized that the illusions were gone, and the final defense of the Kindred was shattered.

“NO!” He roared and redoubled his speed; he would bring back the dagger if he had to rip it from his brother’s lifeless hands.

He didn’t know how he did it, but somehow he drew deeper on the strength Tomaz had lent him, pulling more from the man who was many miles distant now, pulling so much that he began to outdistance Leah on her charger, though she was whipping the poor creature bloody.

And then they were at the foot of the mountains, and Raven stopped.

Leah blew past him on her horse, but then pulled up in a flurry of snow and turned back to him.

“
Where is he?
” She yelled over the whipping wind and the slashing snow. She had lit a torch to help them see, but it was dying, and Raven knew that it would soon go out and they would be left in the middle of a mounting blizzard in near total darkness. But he didn’t care, not now; all that mattered was Tiffenal.

“He went this way,” he said, motioning away from the road that led to the main pass, toward a second road, old and disused, that led into a deep forest and directly to a barren mountainside.

“Is he trying to lead us into a trap?” She asked.

“He’s the Fox,” said Raven grimly, “of course he is. But this is the way he went.”

“No!” She called over the mounting wind. “He has to make for the Pass eventually – that’s the only way in or out of these lands!”

“It’s snowed in!” Raven called back. “There’s no chance of going in or coming out that way! Why would he go there? He’s a trickster, he must have hidden here or … or something!”

And then a look of surprise and fear dawned in Leah’s eyes that quickly hardened once more to anger.

“The shadow-cursed bastard found another way!” She roared; she spun and spurred her horse down the second road, leaving Raven to follow, his whole body tensed with the need for caution – the Fox was dangerous and they were following too fast, too easily.

The second road twisted and turned, leading through paths that had long gone unused, ducking them under trees and over frozen rivers – leading deeper into the side of the mountain, leading eventually to –

A cave.

The mouth of it was small, overgrown with trees and vegetation, easy to miss in the day and nearly impossible to see in the night.

He shouted to Leah, trying to tell her to wait, but she charged forward, plunging into the cave, not willing to waste time on conversation.

Raven reached out again and felt the life of his brother somewhere ahead of them – this was the way he’d gone. He’d taken this tunnel, this secret passage that must lead to the other side of the Roarke Mountains. He took a deep breath and plunged into the cave after Leah.

He turned a corner and saw, to his surprise, that the interior was lit with torches, blazing bright in the cave where the snow and rain couldn’t reach them.

Tiffenal was welcoming them.

Leah jumped off her horse, pushing herself up and over the creature’s neck, the tunnel now too tight to ride in. Raven cursed and followed her; his rage was still with him, but he’d had too much experience with Tiffenal to give it free range.

They shot forward through the tunnel, Leah running at full breakneck speed, Raven easily keeping pace, not knowing what else to do but stay with her. He was reaching through the Talisman, expanding his mind as far as it would go, feeling for every possible detail, listening, smelling, feeling the air around them, waiting for the traps he knew would come.

They turned the next bend in the tunnel and all of the torches went out, leaving them in pure, midnight darkness.

“Damn!”

“Shhh!” Raven said, straining his ears for any hint of sound that would tell them what was coming next. But nothing came; there was no sound at all besides their labored breathing. The silence was oppressive, pushing in on them like a physical force. Raven felt the weight of the mountain above him, hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and ice pressing down on this tunnel, down on
him
, and his breath began to catch in his chest. His mind flashed back to the time he’d spent in the dark, dank cell below Banelyn, chained to a wall inside the Seeker’s lair, unable to move, waiting for death; it was all he could do to keep the memories from overwhelming him.

But then inspiration struck; he reached down and pulled off his gloves, tugging at the laces tied around his wrists, pushing and pulling and wriggling his hands out of them, frantic, almost hysterical. Finally, they were off, and he held up his hands.

The sleeves of his long black shirt fell back, showing the red glow of his veins, the power of the Ox Talisman flowing through him. He felt his breath come easier now – yes, the mountain was still above them, yes they were still trapped underground, but at least he could
see
. Holding his arms up high in the air, a dim red glow illuminated the tunnel around them, falling on Leah, who was staring down the tunnel with wide eyes, looking for anyone or anything that might have tried to sneak up on them in the dark.

But the tunnel was just as they’d seen it before the torches had died. No monster had come slinking out of the darkness to attack them, no trap –

A loud clang sounded from above, and by the light of Raven’s glowing veins they saw a patch of the stone roof fall away, revealing above it a faint, dim outline of something … something falling straight toward them.

Without a second thought Raven grabbed Leah in his arms, and ran with every ounce of his strength down the tunnel. The world crashed in around them as the tunnel crumbled and soon they were coughing and choking. Rocks hit him in the back, boulders that should have crushed him but for the strength of the Ox Talisman. Heavy dust coated the air, so thick it pressed against their eyes and ears like a heavy pillow, leaving them completely deprived of their senses. It was exactly like being buried alive, and Raven only barely managed to hang on to his sanity as his mind quaked with fear. Another rock hit him, and this time he was thrown forward, baring both of them to the ground.

After an eternity, the shaking subsided, and they came slowly to their feet, both trembling, looking around them by the light of the red glow; they saw then through the clouds of settling dust that the tunnel behind them had completely collapsed. If he had been one second slower to react they would have died. As it was … now there was no way back.

“Let’s go,” Leah said, pushing him ahead of her so he could light the way.

They moved forward quickly, though with less haste now that they had seen the true dangers of following the Fox on a path prepared by his own hateful hands. Raven felt the thin, tendrilic fingers of fear playing on the nape of his neck, crawling down the back of his spine. A foe lurked around every corner, every rock was a trap ready to be sprung, every shifting shadow the Fox lunging from concealment.

They continued on for far too long, in the dark with only the light of Raven’s glowing veins.
 
Now that the first trap was well passed, Leah was once again jogging, nearing a flat-out run, and it was all Raven could do to keep up with her without falling on his face over an unseen dip in the ground.