Conor furrowed his brows. Up ahead, the others had already quieted and turned to watch them running frantically back. Conor’s persistent visions flashed through his mind – the eagle, the ape, the snake, the golden leaves. The cliff, the red earth –
“That red rock,” he muttered under his breath. Then louder, “That rock formation we just saw, on the far side. I think that’s Muttering Rock.”
“Do you think they’ve freed Kovo already?” Rollan asked.
“I don’t know,” Conor admitted. “But we have to head there all the same. If Kovo hasn’t been freed yet, it won’t be long before he is.”
The three charged back to the others. Finn frowned at their expressions. “What did you see out there?”
“Conquerors,” Abeke said breathlessly. “A whole army of them.”
“And no Olvan,” Conor added, saying what Abeke had been hesitant to voice. “His forces are supposed to hold them off and give us the chance to go ahead.”
“We may have arrived before him,” Finn said grimly. He nodded toward the foothills from where they’d just come. “Show me.”
Conor took them back to the crest, where they all got down on their bellies to watch the massive expanse of troops arrange themselves into practice formations. It seemed as if they were preparing for a big event, and Conor had no question what that event would be. Maya crawled over to join them after a while. She sucked in her breath at the sight.
“There,” Abeke snapped, pointing out a lone figure standing near the front of the flanks. Her jaw clenched until Conor thought it might break. “Shane!”
Even from this distance, the Devourer’s enormous crocodile was clearly visible camped out at its human partner’s side, its mighty jaws opening and closing. Conor shivered at the way its tail swept back and forth, and imagined the wide swaths it was painting in the desert sand. He looked back at Abeke to see her hands were clenched into fists. The fire of rage lit her eyes, a rare sight.
“If Shane’s here,” Rollan added, his own eyes sweeping the scene, “then maybe Meilin is too.”
Conor’s gaze settled on the strange rock formation he’d seen earlier. Something about it continued to hold his attention. Kovo. He called Briggan out from his passive state, and the huge wolf joined them in a small flash of light. His hackles were already up.
“Conor,” Finn said, looking at the rock. “Is that … ?”
Conor nodded.
“We have to find a way around this army and reach the rock without drawing their attention,” Finn continued. He gestured down to the formations. “I can see some of their forces down in three of the narrow ravines leading onto the plain. I’m going to assume they’ve taken those, as well.” He pointed to two more narrow valleys that fed into the plains. “If we want to get around them, we’ll need to make a wide circle east. And we’ll need to do it without our horses.”
Conor felt a pang at that. He looked back at the poor animals, all of whom had already been in bad shape before they set out. How would they survive in the desert?
Finn saw his face and shook his head. “We can’t take them. Where we’ll have to go is too steep for their legs. They will die. And if one of them startles when we’re passing close to the Conquerors, they could give away our location.”
Conor took a closer look at the terrain. The way he was crouched in the grass gave him a better view of the lower plains than Finn had. As he scanned the space, he noticed a tiny, shadowed path. Paths. In fact, there were several branches of grooves carved deep into the land, as if some ancient river and its tributaries used to exist there and had dried up decades ago.
The resulting maze of winding paths had tall walls with strange, wavelike formations and natural half tunnels. The paths carved their way all along the edge of the foothills. They stopped short of where their small troupe needed to be, but if they could pass through there completely unnoticed, they would leave behind the worst of the Conquerors.
“There,” he whispered. “What if we make our way through one of those river paths?”
Finn followed his finger. His brows furrowed in thought. “It will take us dangerously close to the troops,” he finally muttered. “If we’re found while still there, they’ll easily overwhelm us in a matter of minutes.”
Conor nodded. “Definitely dangerous,” he admitted. “But it’s faster, and it looks like smooth, flat ground underneath those wave formations. If we pass through, the shape of it should muffle the sound of our horses’ hooves, and block them from seeing the troops.” He glanced at the others for their approval.
Rollan didn’t even hesitate. “The faster, the better. I’m with Conor. Meilin might be down there with those troops, and we need to save her as soon as we can.”
Abeke seemed more guarded. “We are passing awfully close,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “But if we pad our horses’ hooves, we can make them travel even more quietly. Conor’s right – the shadows and the formations should hide us from view.”
Maya frowned. “It’ll keep them from seeing us, true, but it’ll also keep us from seeing them. We won’t even have a warning of them coming until they’re right on top of us. We won’t have a second chance.”
“I can keep Essix out,” Rollan suggested. “She’ll have to fly high to stay out of sight, but she can be our eyes, and if she sees the Conquerors moving toward us, she’ll give us a warning cry.”
“It’s the best solution,” Conor said, nodding toward Kalani. “We’re not going to survive much longer out in these deserts, not with the state we’re all in. It’s time for us to take a chance, even if it’s our only one.”
It took him a moment to realize that everyone was looking to him as if he were the final say in the decision – as if he were now leading the charge. Conor blinked, taken momentarily off guard. Maya was right about one thing: This was their final stand. They would succeed now, or everything they’d worked toward, ever since they first drank the Nectar and joined the Greencloaks, would be for nothing. This was the final struggle for Erdas, and it fell to Conor’s decision.
Memories from long ago flashed across his mind – sitting with his brothers in green pastures dotted with white sheep, standing behind Devon Trunswick and meticulously buttoning his luxurious vest…. How strange to be here after once being a shepherd and a servant.
He took a deep breath and willed himself to keep his head high. “I say we do it.”
Finn nodded once. He didn’t question Conor again. “Prepare the horses. We’ll make for the path at sunset.”
Sunset seemed to take forever to arrive. The light turned red and purple, casting long shadows across the plains. Cooking fires began to dot the bush where the Conquerors were gathered.
The team finally made their move.
Their horses trotted slowly down the side of the rolling hills. Finn led, followed by Conor and the others, the hoods of their cloaks pulled over their heads to blend them in further with the lengthening shadows. They moved in a short, silent procession. As they went, the landscape shifted, changing from bushes and dry grasses to red, sandy rock and bare, sheer cliff sides. The walls of rock kept them safely hidden as night fell in earnest.
After a while, the mouth of the paths came into view – its walls tall and curved into a wave formation. The sound was strange here, bouncing the faint thud of hooves against the curved wall so that it came right back to them, giving it an odd echo. A cool breeze whipped their hair and hoods back.
Conor struggled to hear what might be going on beyond the rock wave, whether or not the Conquerors had followed them. The formation made it difficult for him to hear much outside of the path, though. He looked up to the sky. Essix was flying so high that in the darkness, he couldn’t see her anywhere.
Behind him, Rollan whispered, “We’re doing okay. The Conquerors seem like they’re all cooking their suppers.”
“Good,” Conor replied. He could use a little bit of supper himself, but he quickly banished the thought. As if in resp
onse, his stomach rumbled. Even that sound echoed inside the wave formation, bouncing back and forth between the high bluffs.
The darker the night became, the harder it was for them to make out where they were going. The path had started to branch too, forcing them to concentrate on following the rightmost course so that they didn’t accidentally lose each other. Conor couldn’t see the moon tonight. Soon they were traveling in almost total darkness, their horses picking their way carefully through the terrain.
Finn kept them at as fast of a pace as he could, but they moved slower than Conor had predicted. The idea of Conquerors being right over the top of the wave formation – that at any moment, one might wander close by and look down to see them passing through – made Conor urge his horse on.
The other thing he didn’t plan on, aside from the strange echoes: the wind. The shape of the narrow path channeled the air in such a way that a constant blast of cold wind beat against them, whipping their cloaks out behind them in dark streams. Conor gritted his teeth against it. After traveling through dry heat for the entire day, the sudden shift threw him off. At least it made a whistling noise as it went, muting their hoofbeats.
“How far along are we?” Abeke hissed from ahead. “It feels like we’ve been stuck in here for hours.”
Conor tried to gauge how much distance they’d covered, but it was hard in the winding darkness. He looked over his shoulder at Rollan. “Can Essix give you any hints?”
Rollan started to answer, but a sound stopped them all abruptly.
It was the sound of hooves against dirt, but not any of theirs. They fell into a tense silence – Conor strained to hear if it came from the Conquerors’ camps. But the noise had disappeared.
Then it was back again, even louder. This time, Conor could tell it came from the path far ahead that curved around a bend. A moment later, he saw the flood of light from a lantern wrapping around the path.
The rock formation bent sound so oddly that they hadn’t heard the approaching party. Kalani, riding near the front, only had time to draw her sword before the other party came clearly into view.
Meilin appeared first, her hand clutching the lantern, with Jhi right beside her. An entire troop of Conqueror soldiers followed. She stared straight at them, her eyes anguished.
“Found you,” she said.
ROLLAN DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO THINK AT THE SIGHT OF her. He didn’t know how to react. He didn’t know why his first thought was of the last time he’d seen her, running away from them with Abeke in tow, her mind and body no longer under her own control. He had no idea what expression must be on his face.
“Meilin,” Rollan found himself calling out.
She winced at his voice but held firm. Her eyes turned yellow, and her pupils dilated to an unnatural size. “Seize them,” she commanded.
The Conquerors charged at Finn and the Greencloaks. Conor called Briggan out in a blaze of light, and Uraza came roaring out of passive state to attack the enemy soldiers. Rollan called out for Essix, who let out a cry in return as she swooped down – and then he swung from his saddle and started shoving his way toward Meilin.
She didn’t look like herself anymore. Dark circles rimmed the skin below her eyes, and her hair swung limply with each move of her head. But one thing stayed the same – she moved in an elegant blur of motion, a whirlwind of attacks that he was all too familiar with, taking down a Greencloak with a fierce kick at his head. Beside her, Jhi reluctantly ambled at her side, protecting her as she went.
“Take them prisoner!” Meilin shouted.
Rollan noticed that Shane stood at the very back of the patrol, a dark smile on his face.
Shane called for his crocodile. The enormous creature emerged, tail thrashing, blocking off the entire path with its size. Rollan touched the talisman buried against his chest. If the Conquerors got hold of his and Abeke’s talismans, they were doomed.
Essix dove into the fray with talons outstretched, her cry furious. She lunged for the Devourer’s crocodile first, but her sharp claws clicked harmlessly against tough scales. The crocodile snapped its head around, jaws seeking feathers. The gyrfalcon darted out of reach at the last instant. The beast’s teeth barely missed her.
Abeke and Kalani moved at the same time, with Uraza charging ahead of them. They attacked a Conqueror and knocked him hard to the ground. Uraza pounced up onto the back of another Conqueror’s horse with one huge leap, and the soldier fell off his mount with a shriek.
Nearby, Conor and Briggan aimed for Shane’s crocodile, Briggan snarling and trying to find a way around its snapping jaws, to hold the animal off from the others.
“Meilin!” Rollan shouted as loudly as he could.
Meilin paused for a moment in the midst of the fighting; her head snapped in his direction. There – he could see a spark of recognition in her eyes, something within that fought to break free of the cloud that blanketed her face. He ducked under a Conqueror’s swinging sword and sprinted in her direction. If he could just reach her, if he could just touch her hand, he knew he could help her overcome the Bile. If he just –
“Fall back!” Finn shouted from the fray. Rollan’s attention broke for an instant. The elder Greencloak pointed at the path behind them. “The way we came!”
The Greencloaks began to break formation, turning their shrieking horses around and urging them in the opposite direction. Rollan cast another desperate look toward Meilin. She met his gaze for a brief moment. No. I have to reach her! Again he started to push through the soldiers, but the Greencloaks were all retreating. Abeke grabbed his arm as she passed him.
“We have to run!” she shouted.
“But –”
Rollan looked again and Meilin was lost from sight within the Conquerors. The enemy charged forward, weapons brandished. Gritting his teeth, Rollan followed Abeke and ran with the others.
Dust flew up from the footsteps and hooves, clouding the entire narrow path with a haze lit by the light of their lanterns. The dust lined Rollan’s throat. He choked and coughed. His boot caught on the edge of a sharp rock – he stumbled, then fell hard to the ground.
Immediately he started staggering to his feet again, but he looked up and found himself staring straight into Meilin’s haunted face.
She looked like she was about to attack him. Rollan braced himself.
Then, without warning, she grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him close. The colors in her eyes shifted abruptly, flashing from sickly gold back into a humanlike darkness, her pupils contracting. “The next fork will have no patrols,” she hissed. “It’ll lead you to the surface. Go!” She released him.
Rollan gaped, but he had no time to respond – or to grab Meilin’s hand and pull her with him. She lost the battle in her eyes. Her pupils dilated back into big black halos, and her irises gleamed yellow once more. With Jhi at her side, she waved the Conquerors forward. Shane smirked in approval.
Rollan had no idea whether Gerathon heard Meilin’s warning to him, or how it even happened, but he knew they couldn’t stay on their current path for long. He turned and ran to where Abeke was dashing back to him.
“Take the next path!” he gasped at her, gesturing for her to pass it along. Abeke didn’t hesitate. She shouted it up the chain, and the words traveled to the rest of the Greencloaks.
She helped us, Rollan thought feverishly as they ran. But she was still under the Bile’s influence. Somehow, her willpower must be finding a way to break through the overwhelming control – and if that was the case, then surely there would be a way to save her. Rollan forced himself to keep going, instead of turning around and finding Meilin again. Getting captured wouldn’t help anybody right now.
They reached the branch with the Conquerors right at their heels. Somewhere above the walls and along the plains, Rollan thought he could hear the sound of battle – the clang of sword meeting sword, horses’ thundering hooves, shouts of men. Had the other Conquerors already been alerted? If the entire army knew where they were now,
they would have no hope of getting through in time. As they ran, Rollan noticed the ground gradually starting to slope up. He ran faster.
“Essix!” he shouted as he went. Overhead, his gyrfalcon’s familiar cry answered. He took a deep breath, then glimpsed through her eyes. An image flashed before him – the plains from the night sky, dotted with hundreds of fires. Conquerors moving in chaotic clusters. They looked like they were fighting. Rollan peered closer through Essix’s vision.
Right as their path led them up to the surface of the plains, Rollan realized that the Conquerors’ army was fighting … Greencloaks.
Olvan and his forces had finally arrived!
Rollan blinked, returning to his own view, then looked on in awe as they all ran. Familiar cloaks flashed in the darkness, clashing with the Conquerors’ dark armor, their silhouettes outlined sharply by the fires. Olvan’s moose reared somewhere in the fray, his enormous antlers glinting in the dark. There! Was that … a soldier wearing the crest of Lord MacDonnell on his armor? And there – Rollan thought he saw Lishay, the Greencloak who had fought alongside them in Zhong, and at her side was her late brother’s black tiger, loyal to her almost like her own spirit animal had once been. Rollan wanted to shout with relief. They were all here! Even a few Niloan warriors darted through the melee, their war cries joining the sounds of battle. They must have joined Olvan’s forces! He wondered if Abeke’s father was among them.
Then a figure flashed through the darkness that erased Rollan’s smile. Zerif. He caught sight of Rollan, and the corners of his lips turned up into an oily sneer. The Iron Boar was looped around his neck – even as Greencloaks on horseback tried to shoot him down with arrows, their weapons bounced harmlessly off of him. With a snarl, Zerif turned in his saddle as a Greencloak rode up beside him. Rollan looked on in horror as he slashed at the Greencloak with his sword. The Greencloak clutched his chest and fell from his horse with a sickening thud.