Chapter Twelve

With the bandit's death still very fresh in our minds, my companions and I moved through the Narrows with greater haste than previously - and also with greater caution.  I felt like I was walking backwards half the time, lifting my bow at even the smallest noise which could have been a fresh threat.  The light from Lady Gray's lantern shot through the passages, the golden beams causing the walls to sparkle both from moisture and from traces of minerals in the rock.

How long we walked, I do not know.  We came to another side passage, and I longed to stop for a rest; my legs ached from the effort of climbing the subtly rising passage, and my lungs felt tormented by the thinner air.  Sabastian took the lantern and peered into the irregularly-shaped cavern, sword raised against a possible attack.  None came, but he gave the light back to its usual bearer and shook his head.

"I'm not risking our being cornered like that again," he said.  "They might have gone for reinforcements.  We keep going."

He was mountain-born, I had to remind myself, and this terrain was not strange to him.  As for the Lady, I was beginning to doubt that anything could deter or weary her, even to the smallest degree.

Chapter Eleven

My companions and I rose as one at the sound of the intruder's voice.  A thick-set man, with a wry sort of face and very little hair, was all but filling the passage which led back into the Narrows proper.  I couldn't see past his bulk, but I had the distinct impression that there was at least one person behind him.

"I thought you said there were no bandits in the Narrows," I said, glancing at the Lady.

"I never said that," she replied.  "What I said was that I've never encountered anything in the Narrows more dangerous than Sabastian.  Surely you don't think this gentleman - impressive as he may be - poses a greater threat to us than we do to him?"

Chapter Ten

We passed an uneventful night, in largest part, with Sabastian and myself sharing the watch with Lady Gray.  That is to say, he and I each slept half the night, and she stayed awake for the duration.  It was the first time they'd really allowed me to share in the night watch, I suppose because I was now privy to that portion of the Lady's secrets which was relevant to it.  I can't say her singular condition didn't bother me, exactly, because the knowledge of it is something that has haunted my thoughts at odd moments ever since.  However, it no longer surprised me to find her awake when another would be asleep.

Sharing the watch with her was never entirely comfortable.  She spoke so little that it wasn't too different from sitting up alone, but her presence was always discernible, even in the darkest hours of the night.  Sometimes, when I look back, I think I can see the peculiar green of her eyes radiating through the blackness.  I know this didn't happen, but imagination has a way of coloring the memory, sharpening some details and blurring others, until the picture in the mind is no longer an accurate landscape.

We shared the back half of that night's watch, she and I, taking turns throwing sticks into the flickering embers of our dwindling fire.  Twice only did she speak, in my memory of the evening.  Once she leaned back, gazing up at the sky, and remarked that "The Skyfather hasn't yet finished with his storms.  I think we'll have rain again soon after daybreak."  Later, as the sky began to grow lighter, she confirmed her own prediction by saying, "I smell the rain.  We'd best get into the Narrows before the day wears on much farther.  If you'll start breakfast, Tobiah, I'll wake Sabastian."

Chapter Nine

The journey from the Cathedral of Cedars to the borderlands of Halar took nearly three days.  We probably could have made it in two, but Sabastian refused to push the horses any harder than necessary, and as we had no reason to believe there was a dire need for a swift passage, we kept the pace merely steady.

I was not surprised to find that Sabastian was as harsh a teacher as he was anything else.  With every stop we made, for rest or meals or any other purpose, he had me bring out the bow and practice.  First I had to grow strong enough to pull the string taut, which was much more difficult than I would have expected, and I also had to develop the dexterity to do this while lining up an arrow for a shot.  

Chapter Eight

Looking back, I admit I'm tempted to believe that the Skyfather deliberately sent that storm in order to push my decision in the direction it ultimately took.  That I would remain with Lady Gray and Sabastian felt almost like a foregone conclusion even before I had consciously made up my mind, but spending the night in the stall with their horses reinforced the feeling.

I remained asleep, tangled in a web of tattered and incomprehensible half-dreams, until roused by Sabastian's voice.  "Get up, would you?  They've been looking for you everywhere."