"Kill!" sneered another. "Master will hang him up beside the dirty Marcher woman he has captured and peel off his skin, layer by layer."
aLaughter amongst the Nightbeasts turned into roars of delight.
"He will pull his nails out one by one!"
"He will nibble on his eyeb.a.l.l.s!"
"Find the Gallopersp.a.w.n!" screamed the deep voice, driving the Nightbeasts forward with a twelve-tailed whip that cracked at their heels. "Spread the darkness throughout Elundium."
The tangle-trees were being torn branch from branch; closer and closer the cruel curved scythes slashed through the undergrowth.
"Look! Look over there," snarled a Nightbeast voice less than two paces from where Thane and Stumble were hiding. "There is the Gallopersp.a.w.n the Master seeks, running towards us along the Greenway. Quickly, set a trap and catch him alive, bind him tightly for our Master of Darkness."
The search through the copse of tangle-trees abruptly stopped and Thane bit on his knuckles, powerless to go to Arbel"s aid as he heard the faint ring of steel and cries for help on the Greenway. He dare not reveal where he was hiding, he had little hope of helping Arbel against so many Nightbeasts.
He must wait until the Nightbeast army had pa.s.sed and then try to follow Krulshards. Yet the screams of Arbel"s defeat burned in his ears and echoed long after he had been taken prisoner, and he felt wretched and cowardly hiding beneath a canopy of thorns.
Thane and Stumble crouched in statue stillness, hardly daring to take more than shallow breaths. Only after late afternoon had pulled the shadows long did the last wave of Nightbeasts pa.s.s their hiding place. Gradually the dry rattle of their horrible armour faded and silence settled over the black trampled fields around them. Thane frowned and slowly rose from their hiding place. Why had the Nightbeasts not returned with Arbel towards the city? Where had they taken him?
Krulshards had taken Elionbel from Woodsedge and from what
the Nightbeasts had said he had her prisoner
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somewhere in the Granite City. Touching Stumble"s mane he whispered, "We must tread carefully, there are watchers set by the gates."
Darkness had fallen and the night sky was sewn with a thousand stars before Thane and Stumble moved cautiously from shadow to shadow, working their way along the last league of the Greenway that led to the ruined gates. Far above them, on the summit of the hill, a sheer wall rose, blocking out the stars and within the wall a fierce light burned with the colour of molten gold. "Look at Candlebane Hall!" Thane whispered. "It must still be held against the Nightmare. Look at that light!"
Thane laughed and stared hard at the roof of the Candle Hall; he blinked, shook his head and looked again. "Either the stonemasons have been busy or owls perched on the roof. We may yet have friends in this dark place."
The broken columns of the gate loomed before them. Thane listened to the night wind and caught the faint rattle of Nightbeasts" armour. Drawing the dagger he slipped down into the d.y.k.e beside the road. Following the wet bottom of the ditch he entered the shadows of the gate. The first watcher stood above him, silhouetted against the stars. Thane looked to the left and the right, but the second watcher was nowhere to be seen. Hand over hand he scaled the steep slope of the d.y.k.e, the long blade of his dagger gripped between his teeth. Near the top his foot slipped, sending broken granite chippings cascading down behind him.
"Who?" snarled the watcher, spinning round, his spear blade
held out menacingly against the blackness of the d.y.k.e.
"Gallopersp.a.w.n!"
Thane rolled aside as the spear blade sank into the steep gravel slope beside his head. Reaching up he thrust the dagger, following the shape of the watcher"s arm, keeping the blade parallel. He felt it slice through the thin armour beneath the armpit and sink deep into the heart.
"Gallopersp.a.w.n!" the watcher cried again as Thane pulled
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the blade free. A noise behind Thane made him jump forwards, away from a curving scythe that cut through the air just above his head. Turning he saw three watchers, two with spears drawn back ready to throw; the third was turning the
scythe ready to strike again. Thane crouched and for the first time wished he had kept his grandfather"s sword. Putting his free hand on to the ground he scooped up a fistful of granite chips and flung it at the watchers. Ducking to the left, the dagger held firmly with both hands, he rolled into a ball, expecting the watchers to pounce upon him but instead he heard piercing screams and the clatter of spear shafts falling on to the Greenway. He jumped up and saw the watchers struggling and clawing at three Battle Owls that had stooped out of the darkness to attack their faces. He leapt forwards and three times he plunged the dagger.
"Thank you, owls!" he called softly as the Nightbeast watchers fell forwards, faces torn and bleeding, on to the Greenway. "Quickly," he whispered, summoning Stumble out of the darkness. "There must be dozens of watchers. Follow me into the first circle of the city, I know all the secret ways."
Without a sound the owls hovered above the ruined gates, looking from left to right before they lifted up and away into the darkness as silently as they had come.
Together Stumble and Thane entered the city, picking their way carefully through the rubble-strewn streets.
" "Ware the shadows!" Thane whispered, his eyes wide against the dark silence. "The Learning Hall once stood here,"
he whispered, touching the smooth broken door posts with his free hand. He tried to laugh, but it came out as a dry sound without humour, remembering that this was where it had all began; the Loremaster and the Chancellors" sons hot on his heels for revenge.
"Oh, Nevian," he whispered, "I have failed the Granite King and brought nothing but ruin to this beautiful city. Help me now, Master of Magic, to find Elionbel, just as you once gave me justice here in this Learning Hall and made the Lore
master tell the truth. Help me now!" Running his hand through Stumble"s mane he tried hard to push back the beginnings of despair. "We must search every lane and back alleyway, every dark corner and secret hole and if need drives us we must turn over every fallen block of stone, but we must find Elionbel!"
A long night of searching led them up through the ruined but empty circles of the city. Twice they hid behind huge slabs of stone as Nightbeast watchers pa.s.sed them by, but they found nothing, not a whisper of Elionbel. Thane stood wearily looking up at the sheer granite wall of the inner circle.
"Too late, always too late!" he shouted, clenching his fist and striking it angrily against the wall. Sinking on to his knees he bowed his head and wept. "Whatever I touch, wherever I go, the Nightmare runs before me, destroying, ruining and taking. I am a curse of all Elundium!"
Thane drew his dagger and stared through his tears at the blade.
"Eversharp, Duclos had said; when all hope fades then take out this blade." Thane gripped the hilt and waited. "Well," he sobbed at the darkness. "Where is hope? Gone before this Nightmare just like everything else." He laughed bitterly, and then turned the blade inwards towards his heart.
"Elionbel, I have failed. I know not where to look for you.
The city is ringed with black, burned footprints, watchers walk in each ruined circle. Elionbel, oh Elionbel! This ruin is all my fault."
Thane pressed the point of the blade against the coa.r.s.e weave of his undershirt and it cut through, bringing a small trickle of blood on to the blade. Stumble whinnied and lowered his head to push Thane"s hand away.
"Tombel was right, I am not bloodworthy, I am not even brave enough to stand beside your brother, Arbel, and die like
a man!"
Stumble neighed fiercely, forcing his head between the dagger and Thane"s chest, pushing the blade away. Thane
suddenly realized the bond which had grown between him and the little relay horse and, ashamed, he resheathed the dagger. He stroked the horse"s ears and whispered, "Duclos was right. The dagger does bring hope and together we will hunt this Nightmare and make him pay dearly for what he has done!"
A soft voice laughed in the darkness, "Hope is the power that comes from within. It is the thread that weaves our fate and separates the weak from the strong."
"Nevian!" Thane cried, leaping to his feet and looking from left to right. "Nevian, where are you?"
"Enter the part of the city that the Nightbeasts could not defeat and we shall meet," whispered the voice.
Thane looked quickly about him, scrambling through the rubble. Somehow he had to scale the wall. Stumble snorted, sc.r.a.ping at a Nightbeast siege ladder that lay at the foot of the wall. "I"ll never be able to move it," Thane hissed, gripping the top rung and pulling it away from the wall. It moved quickly and lightly, b.u.mping over the granite blocks, and tripped Thane over. Laughing, he leapt to his feet and balanced the ladder, resting the top rung near the rim of the wall.
"Stay hidden from the watchers and wait for me," he whispered to Stumble, climbing hand over hand into the darkness. Chill nightwinds tugged at his ragged half-cloak making him shiver and he pulled it tightly around his shoulders. Below him in deep shadow the Candle Hall stood, the roof crowded with a stoop of staring Battle Owls, but the inner circle of the city was empty, nothing moved. Thane stared along the inner curve of the wall looking for a way
down. Twenty paces further along the wall he could see the shadow of the narrow set of winding steps that led down to the cobbles.