Part 54 (1/2)

Eventine stepped back two paces and knelt beside the Border Runners, her hand on the ground. 'We have been following the tracks of a single horse for one daylight through the wet gra.s.s, but if the Nightbeasts crossed here they must have killed it.'

Tombel turned and called his Captains forward, but each one in turn shook his head when asked if they had seen a horse wandering alone.

Eventine turned and walked to the edge of the torchlight, pulling her cloak tight against the rain. 'Where are the two travellers?' she whispered to Rockspray who perched forlornly, soaked through, on her shoulder.

She sighed and returned to Kyot's side and listened eagerly as Tombel told of the wreck of Granite City and the vanished King, but her eyes grew wet with tears as he told of Krulshards' attack on Woodsedge and the loss of his wife and daughter and of Arbel's capture as he tried to follow them.

'I will not rest until every Nightbeast is slaughtered,'

Tombel concluded, grimly, ordering his Captains back into

the crescent to ready the warriors for a night's march.

'Will you not wait and rest until morning?' Eventine asked, but Tombel shook his head.

'These Nightbeast tracks.will grow cold. We dare not wait.'

aKyot gripped Tombel's hand and asked him quietly if he could take the crescent of warriors towards Clatterford and keep it safe from the Nightbeast attack. 'Fairday is forging gla.s.s arrow-heads for us to use against the Nightmare and he needs as many daylights as we can win.'

'Not one Nightbeast claw shall touch the lawns of Clauerford,'

Tombel cried, leading the warriors forwards. ~

Kyot and Eventine stood hand in hand watching the.. slowmoving crescent with its flickering torchlight fade int o

the gra.s.slands.

'Clatterford will be safe now,' Kyot whispered, calling Sprint to his side and gathering the reins into his hand. 'Let us ride on and find shelter from this bitter rain.'

Eventine hesitated, looking across the dark bulk of the low ridges. 'No, Kyot,' she whispered, taking his hand again and: removing it from the reins. 'There is something here, l can feel it.

Look, the Border Runners are restless and cast around us in circles; they can scent something. We must wait for the new daylight and then search.'

Kyot smiled at her in the darkness and spread his cloak over them both. 'If the two travellers pa.s.sed this way you wil I find their tracks, I know it.'

Sprint and Tanglecrown grazed on the steep slope of the first ridge while Kyot and Eventine sat beneath a makes.h.i.+ft canopy made from their cloaks that they had stretched between the bows of Orm and Clatterford. They sat looking out across the darkened gully, listening to the rattle of the rain on the winter black reeds.

Kyot turned his head and for a moment he gazed at Eventine's still silhouette. 'Will you come with me to the Tower of Stumble Hill when the Nightmare is dead?' he asked.

Eventine turned to him in the darkness and rested her head on his shoulder. 'Nothing will ever part us. Not even the darkness of the Nightmare, Krulshards,' she whispered.

Kyot lifted his hand and gently caressed her tangled

hair. Long after Eventine had fallen asleep against his shoulder Kyot sat staring out into the rain, knowing a little of how Thane had felt after he had met Elionbel and seeing some of the pain he must be suffering now that the Nightmare had taken her.

Eventine moved, snuggling closer without waking. The grey hours had come and Kyot s.h.i.+vered, looking down at the glistening wind-bent reeds that showed in the half light. 'I will find the Nightmare, and rid Elundium of his foul shadow for ever,' he whispered, touching the arrows packed tightly into his quiver.

Eventine awoke with the first light of dawn, stretched stimy and looked out from beneath the cloak at the pouring rain. Dark shapes crossed the line of the barren ridges, flying close to the ground. 'The grey swans of doom!' she whispered, pointing up at the swans as they flew overhead.

'They call out the dead,' Kyot answered in fear, covering his ears and turning his head away.

Eventine laughed, and tugged at his arm. 'These swans are not grey. At least, the leader has a snow-white breast. Listen, they fly without making a sound.'