Pilgrim by Sara Douglas

haphazardly and parceling them up into rough bundles.

There would be no need to use them that night.

Zared mounted his horse. ―Gustus, will you watch Leagh? I need to be—‖

―I will watch her,‖ Askam broke in. ―You need Gustus with you, and I will be sure to

bring Leagh safely home.‖

Zared hesitated, but Leagh smiled and took her brother‘s arm. ―I will be safe enough with

Askam, Zared.‖

Zared looked from one to the other, and then nodded. He did need Gustus at something

other than nursemaid duty, and watching Leagh would keep Askam out of mischief.

―Then watch her as if your soul depended on it,‖ Zared said, and Askam inclined his

head.

―As if my soul depended on it,‖ he agreed, then took Leagh‘s hand and led her towards

her horse.

For the next two hours Zared‘s full attention was given to the mechanics and logistics of

getting tens of thousands of men and horses and mules across the ford and then into Carlon without clogging river, road or streets.

Rank after rank of men urged horses and supply mules into the muddied waters, and then

up the far bank and onto the road for Carlon. The muscles of man and beast alike, still frozen

from the icy waters of the river, shuddered with the effort of pulling body weight and supply

bundles up the western bank and then through the increasingly trampled road surface. Dust rose

in a cloud along the road to Carlon, men and beasts obscured by the murkiness thrown up by the

host of hastening hooves and feet.

―Leagh?‖ Zared shouted as he saw Askam leading a column of men and horses down into

the Nordra.

She waved as Askam nodded. A faint cry reached Zared‘s ears, but he could not

distinguish words, and within the instant both Leagh‘s and Askam‘s horses had plunged into the

Nordra. Zared felt sick, remembering the near tragedy of the Azle crossing, but the Nordra was

shallower and less angry than that river had been, and Leagh‘s mare retained her footing easily.

―She will be safe,‖ Herme murmured at Zared‘s side, and Zared nodded unhappily.

―I will not relax until she, as all my command, rests safely under Carlon‘s eaves,‖ he said,

and checked the horizon. Already the sun was sinking low into the clouds of dust—now even

Carlon was obscured—and they had perhaps an hour left before they must all be safely sheltered.

Herme noticed the direction of Zared‘s eyes, and he checked the remaining units on their

side of the Nordra.

―Perhaps eight hundred men left,‖ he said. ―Sire, you must think about leaving yourself.‖

―Not until the last of the men is on his way,‖ Zared replied, then he grinned. ―Look! The

donkeys guard our rear.‖

Indeed, it seemed as if that was what the donkeys did. They had positioned themselves at

the very rear of the final column, but facing eastwards, as if they feared an attack from the rear.

Zared‘s grin faded. ―What are they ? ‖ he whispered.

―Our friends,‖ Herme responded quietly, ―and that is all we need to know.‖

Within twenty minutes the last column had braved the ford, and Zared, Herme and

Gustus—Theod having gone on earlier—pushed their horses into the water.

Behind them, the two donkeys plunged in as well.

Within a heartbeat Zared felt the icy water creep up to his thighs, and felt his horse falter

as the current caught. But it found its footing surely enough, and pushed forwards, and within

minutes Zared felt the water cascade away from their bodies as the horse leaned into the slope of

the western bank.

―Home!‖ Zared shouted joyfully, and dug his heels into his horse‘s flanks. It needed no

encouragement.

The final few hundred men, Zared, Herme, Gustus and the two donkeys at their rear,

galloped for the city, racing to reach its gates before the sun sank below the horizon.

―Home!‖ Zared screamed, and the cry was taken up about and before him.

― Home! Home! Home! ‖ men screamed, and then the shadow of the walls embraced them,

and Zared heard the gates groan and then thunder closed behind the donkeys.

―Home safe,‖ he cried, and waved at the cheering crowd overjoyed to have him home.

―Home safe.‖

―Theod!‖ Zared clapped the man on the shoulder, still suffused with the joy of bringing

virtually his entire command safe into Carlon‘s shelter and not noticing the man‘s frown.

―Theod. Did Leagh go straight to the palace?‖

―Zared,‖ Theod stumbled. ―I thought she and Askam were riding with you.‖

A coldness such as he‘d never known before crept through Zared‘s entire existence.

― Where is Leagh?‖

―I thought she was with you!‖ Theod repeated in a whisper, his face white.

Zared stared at him a moment longer, then spun for the gates. ―Leagh!‖

―No!‖ Theod screamed, and grabbed at Zared‘s arm. ―Night falls. See?‖

Zared paid him no heed.

― Leagh,‖ he screamed, and it took five men to drag him away from the exposed air of the

street and into a nearby shop as twilight fell over the city.

― Leagh! ‖

―Why, why, why?‖ she cried, twisting in the grip of a brother she no longer knew.

As they had ridden for the city, and under cover of the dust haze, Askam had seized the

reins of her horse and, surrounded by the men he‘d led back from the wilderness, had kicked

their horses into the shelterless fields north of Carlon.

Now they milled about as dusk swept in from the east, the safety of the city a useless

half-league to the south.

―Why?‖ she cried, too confused to be scared. Yet.

Askam let his madness reveal itself in his smile, and though it was his voice that

answered, he spoke with the words of the brown and cream badger.

―Welcome to the new Tencendor, my dear. I am sure you will be a useful addition to our

company.‖

Leagh opened her mouth to say something, but just then the corruption of dusk swept

over them, and a thin whimper was all that issued from her mouth.

Pestilence raged, bubbling through the minds and souls of all those exposed.

For one horrible brief moment of sanity, Leagh understood her fate, and understood that

she had been betrayed by her brother.

One hand clutched uselessly at the air, and she opened her mouth for one final, despairing

shriek.

But no sound came forth. Madness ravaged her mind and tore her soul to pieces, and

Leagh stared blindly into insanity.

Then, quietly, she began to babble, her fingers itching madly at her belly.

31

The Fun of the Blooding

For several days Caelum and his parents climbed ever higher into the Icescarp Alps. The

climb was hard, the cold wretched, and the lack of food debilitating—what game may have once

existed on the sides of the mountains had apparently disappeared—yet all these discomforts

paled into insignificance when compared to the constant sweeping shadow of the Hawkchilds far

above them.

The three tried to ignore them as they climbed, but it was hard to drive the shadow and

the intermittent whispering and hissing laughter from their minds.

They spent each night huddled in frigid caves or under draughty overhangs, clinging

close to each other and the hounds for warmth.

On the fourth night, they had found a slightly more substantial cave. It had been formed

from a fault in the rock, and stretched some twelve paces back into the cliff face, and was at least

five paces wide and five high. There was room enough for all to curl up at the rear of the cave, a

mass of arms and legs and furred bodies, out of the draught that eddied in from the narrow

mouth.

No-one had spent much time on conversation after they‘d stumbled in and checked the

cave for any dangers that might be lurking there. Axis had just nodded tiredly once he was

certain the cave was as safe a shelter as they‘d find that night, and had then sunk down to the

dirt, pushing aside some of the cave rubble to make himself a reasonably flat space in which to

sleep. Azhure and Caelum lay down on either side of him, and then the hounds snuffled and

scratched and turned about in ever-tighter circles, finally dropping down as close to the three as

they could.

It was as much comfort and warmth as any could expect.

Once settled, no-one spoke. All were too hungry and cold and tired to be able to conjure

anything vaguely cheerful in the way of words, and there was no use speaking the pessimism that

gripped all their minds.

Outside the darkness deepened, and the cave lost all form in the gathering night.

Axis wondered where the Hawkchilds spent the nights. Did they cling to the rock face

outside the cave entrance, like gigantic bats protecting their nest? Or did they spend the entire

night spiralling ever higher in the joy of their masters‘ expanding destruction? Waiting for the