Valley of the Ancients: Book Three of the Restoration Series (8 page)

Angaria bowed his head, "My apologies High Father. Please forgive me."

Dalin let the silence hang in the air for a long moment. "I am going to put you in charge of the search but if you fail me one more time, then it will be a long drawn out death for you. Do you understand?"

Angaria looked up, his expression hungry, "Thank you, and I will not fail you again."

Flare woke the next morning just before dawn, and found Abner and Sadah already up. Sadah was stoking the coals in the small fire pit that Flare had made the night before. She seemed to be experienced at it, and in no time there was a crackling fire. Abner was not far away, rolling up their blankets and putting them back into their packs.

Seeing Flare moving, Abner walked over and knelt down beside him. "I hope we didn't wake you, but we did try to move quietly."

I must be exhausted,
Flare thought,
people moving around and I didn't even wake.
He wasn't angry, rather he was more embarrassed than anything. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he yawned and stretched, "Which way are you headed?"

"West. Over the mountains."

Caught in the middle of a yawn, Flare nearly choked on his tongue. "Over the mountains?" He repeated, "You know a way over the mountains?"

Abner smiled, "Yes. I come to this side of the mountains to trade and such, but most of my friends and family are on the far side, including those who seek my spiritual guidance." He paused for a moment and the only sounds were the crackling of the fire and Sadah messing with something on the other side of the camp. "In truth, most of those that I comfort and guide are wanted men in Telur. If they came over the mountains, they would be arrested, so I make the journey instead. I bring messages back and forth and sometimes I will do a bit of trading."

Half priest and half merchant,
Flare thought and had to fight to hide his smile. "Could you tell me how to get over the mountains? My plans were to try and find a way, but that could take weeks, if I even managed it."

"I can do better than that," Abner said, his smile getting even wider.

Something in the other man's tone bothered Flare. Abner sounded too pleased about something. "What do you mean?"

"We would be honored to show you the way," Abner said with a small bow. "You can accompany us."

"Accompany you?" Flare repeated dully. Honestly, it wasn't the worst outcome as far as Flare was concerned, but it was pretty high on his list. Judging by the look of abject horror on Sadah's face, and the plate of food she had just spilled, she wasn't too pleased with the idea either.

"Yes, Sadah and I would be ecstatic if you would join us on our journey."

Flare's first thought was that it must be a trick. Perhaps Abner was hopeful of getting a reward or something, but that just didn't seem right. Out of necessity, Flare had gotten better at judging people, and he just didn't think Abner was the kind of man to stab him in the back, although, he had been fooled before.

"Master, perhaps," Sadah began to say, but she cut off abruptly at a look from Abner.

"I don't trust you," Flare said bluntly.

Sadah bristled and climbed to feet. She looked poised to spring but she held her tongue.

Abner did not react angrily, instead he only bowed his head. "I would not expect you to, you just met us. I assure you, however, that we mean you no ill will."

Flare studied the other two for a moment and then sighed deeply. These two were the best chance he had. Regardless of his like or dislike of the situation, he had to go along.

Sensing Flare's acquiescence, Abner's ever present grin got even bigger.

Chapter 4

On the morning of the fourth day after joining up with Abner and Sadah, Flare found himself high up in the mountains. The journey so far was a mixed affair. Sadah did not like him and she didn't bother to hide it. Abner, on the other hand, seemed to be overly friendly to both of them, only occasionally snapping at Sadah when she let her true feelings show through. Flare and the girl had come to an understanding. He chose tov> & ignore her glares and rude comments and she chose to let him. On several occasions he had considered bending the girl over his knee, but he thought that Abner might object, and he really needed the old man's help.

Besides Sadah's issues with him, things were going fairly smoothly. He got along well with Abner and they had settled into a bit of a routine. Even Sadah did her tasks without complaint.

In addition to knowing a way over the mountains, there was another benefit to traveling with Abner. He carried spare cloaks and blankets. As they moved higher up the sides of the mountains, the temperatures continued to drop, especially at night. On his own, Flare would have been sorely pressed to stay warm enough, but Abner was only too happy to share his extra cloaks.

There had only been one disagreeable situation between Abner and Flare. On the first day of their journey together, Abner headed to a small village nearby. When Flare learned of their destination, he flat out refused to continue, going so far as to tell Abner and Sadah to go on their own. It had been one of the few times that Abner's grin had disappeared, but Sadah had only looked relieved. In the end, the old man had grudgingly given in and they had turned more westward, climbing higher in the mountains.

Their journey quickly turned from walking to climbing and Flare was forced to let his pack horse wander away. It worried him that he would no longer be able to outrun any pursuers, but the exhausted horse probably wouldn't have been able to outrun anybody as it was. He watched it meandering off, headed back down the mountain, and he hoped that it wouldn't meet a bad end.

Whether or not Abner knew a way to the other side of the mountains was still unresolved, but the old man quickly impressed Flare with his knowledge of the area. He deftly led them around gorges, drop-offs, and other obstacles that would have had Flare backtracking and getting lost.

It was still several hours before noon, when they stopped at the base of a shear cliff. The mountain at this point looked like an immense smooth wall that ran both north and south.

Stopping in his tracks, Flare looked around, the freezing wind biting into the small patches of skin that were exposed. "What now? How do we get around that?" He motioned towards the cliff.

Abner was in the lead of the small group, but he stopped and turned when Flare spoke. His face was covered with a white cloth to help keep him warm. "We don't get around it," he called, "we get over it."

Scanning the side of the mountain, Flare searched for any sign of a trail, any sign of a way up the mountain. Seeing none, he looked back to Abner, "How?"

Moving close, Abner pointed. "See there, where the mountain appears to be cracked."

Crack was an accurate description of the break that Abner was pointing towards. The southern part of the mountain appeared to be pushed slightly farther eastwards and jutted out just a bit more than the northern side. The whole "crack" was rather rough looking.

Flare swallowed hard, "I see it. What about it?"

"We climb it," Abner said simply. It was hard to tell with the white cloth over his face, but he had to be smiling.

"Are you crazy?" Flare asked, looking back to the mountain. "That's impossible."

"Sadah and I traveled this way less than a month ago. Surely, if she can make it than you can too."

"How long does it take?" Flare asked, looking at the top of the mountain. It was covered in snow and the wind was whipping the snow around, making the mountain top look like it was covered by a thick cloud.

"It would take less time if you would quit asking so many questions," Sadah said from behind them.

Abner didn't say a word, he just looked around Flare at the girl and she dropped her eyes to the ground. She looked appropriately cowed.

"We do not have to climb the complete way to the top." He pointed to a spot that was maybe two thirds of the way up the side of the cliff. "There's a cave in the side of the mountain, and in the back of that cave is a tunnel through to the other side."

Flare sighed deeply. He still wasn't looking forward to the coming climb, but at least it wasn't as bad as he had thought.

For a while, the going wasn't that bad. The crack in the mountain was rather wide at the bottom and narrowed the higher up it went. At the base, the crack was nearly ten yards across and Abner led them to the left side where they started their climb. Sadah followed the old man and then disapprovingly, Flare brought up the rear.

Initially, the going was easy and he began to feel better about the ascent. It started out similar to steps, with the height of the steps irregularly spaced. In truth the "steps" were the jagged pieces of the crack.

The wind started getting more noticeable and several times Flare stopped moving until a particularly powerful gust passed. He just stood there with a death grip on the rocks as the wind whipped his cloak around him. After the third time of the wind trying to dislodge him from the rocks, he glanced down. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. He had not realized how high they had already climbed. The ground seemed so far away. His mouth instantly went dry and his hands began to sweat.

Breathing deeply, Flare yanked his gaze off of the ground far below and turned it upwards. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, willing himself to stay calm. He had been in some high places before, but never on the jagged edge of a cliff.

Forcing his eyes open, Flare realized with a start that he could no longer see Abner and Sadah. They had just been here a moment ago. It was impossible for them to have climbed out of his sight that quickly. Just then, Abner's head popped back into view.

"You coming?"

Blinking in surprise, Flare guessed that Abner and Sadah were resting on a rock shelf. The idea of taking a break was exciting, but he wasn't sure how much he would like looking out over the edge of the mountain. "Yeah. Be there in a moment."

In no time, Flare reached the small landing and pulled himself onto the rock shelf, quickly scooting away from the edge. The landing was small and cramped, a jagged piece of rock hung out horizontally, giving the shelf a ceiling that was just three or four feet high.

Panting, Flare just lay there, enjoying the respite.

"Afraid of being this high up?" Sadah asked, her tone containing the merest hint of glee.

"Higher? No higher." He pointed behind Flare, "There's our way through the mountain."

Surprised, Flare looked around to see a small black hole in the rock behind him. Maybe two feet wide, maybe. "I thought you said there was a cave."

"It opens up a few feet in and you can stand. The best part is that it goes all the way through."

"Master!" Sadah blurted. Both Flare and Abner turned to the girl but she was looking out over the edge of the cliff.

Thankful that he was still lying down, Flare slid a little farther over to the edge and looked down. It was a long way to the bottom, but it was easy to see what had spooked Sadah. Several black shapes moved across the open area at the base of the cliff. Even with his superior elven sight, he couldn't discern the shapes clearly.

Closing his eyes, Flare forced his body to relax and concentrated on his breathing. After a moment, his eyes opened and he directed his spirit forward to investigate who was following them. He had a suspicion as to who it might be, but he had to know for sure.

Flare's surroundings appeared almost to recede and the surprise almost made him lose control of his spirit. It wasn't that his surroundings had changed, but instead his perception altered. Abner and Sadah were still lying there on the rock shelf beside him, but they seemed farther away and things looked less colorful, like they were graying out. The overall affect was a little bit disconcerting, but for some reason he wasn't scared, it was like he knew things were all right. Even though he knew it was bright and sunny, everything now appeared dark, like it had quickly gotten overcast or the sun was going down quicker than it should have.

One thing shown brightly in his vision, it was something that hadn't been there just a moment before. An opaque white cloud hung directly in front of him. He was confused as to what the cloud meant, but then he looked down and saw that the cloud was connected to his chest. The cloud seemed to be attached to him.
Is that my spirit?
Flare thought in wonderment. Sorcerers used their spirits to influence the physical world, but he had never seen it like this before.

The spirit cloud continued to hover directly in front of him as he considered what he should do. Finally, he hesitantly nudged his spirit down the mountain.

Fast as lightning, the cloud shot down the slope, all the while one end remained attached to Flare's chest.

The cloud reached the base of the mountain and spread out like a fog covering the ground. It wound through the rocks and the few bushes that managed to grow here. In no time at all, the six men approaching the mountain were surrounded. They continued to move forward, taking no notice of the strange fog that enveloped them.

Before, when Flare had used his spirit to search things out, it had never been like this. This was definitely new. Even though he knew he was still lying on his side, next to the other two, he also felt like he was walking amongst the six men at the base of the cliff.

As soon as that thought occurred to him, he was standing beside one of the six men. Flare staggered at the sudden chang"0"e in his surroundings and perceptions and began to move away, giving himself room to draw his sword. He gasped for breath and his heart felt like it might beat right out of his chest. What was going on?

The soldier took absolutely no notice of him, he just kept moving forward, his eyes on the cliff face.

Flare turned to follow the man as he walked past and realized that his boots made no noise on the loose rocks underfoot. "Can you hear me?" he asked, wondering if he was somehow invisible. The soldier continued walking, not so much as a stumble to show that he heard Flare's question.