Stormrider (22 page)

I am not as the others are. I have no home to go to. I am for you. I am Starwalker.

Chapter 18

Raptor slanted the pony a disapproving look and totally forgot the presence of The People all around them. “I have no need for a pony,” he bit the words out.

You have need of me
.

“Doubtful. I travel great distances. You’ll never fit on my ship.”

A snort and a toss of Starwalker’s strongly chiseled head
. I have no desire to go on your ship. I will not leave Nashira.

“I will not stay. So what is the point? I have no need of a pony.”

Repetition with conviction:
You have need of me
.

“Perhaps it is you who have need of me,” Raptor tossed back—choosing offensive instead of defensive.

Doubtful
.

“What if we remain together now and then, later, I leave Nashira?”

Then I will live alone.

“And make me feel guilty in the leaving.”

You may feel guilty, but it is not I who will make you

feel so. I am of Nashira as are you. There are choices to be made. You will make yours
.

Raptor turned to Stormrider. “By Hela’s underworld, are they all like this?!”

In gentle humor a soft reply from her lips. “You are arguing with your pony?”

“He is not my pony.”

She made a gesture which included her wolves and all The People, tired, sick, and waiting to press on. “Everyone but you seems to think he is.”

Raptor’s glance included her three wolves (not really
her
wolves as she had so often made the point), poised and ready to lead the way forward. Strongheart appeared impatient, Littlefoot amusedly tolerant and One Eye disgusted. The People just looked exhausted.

It was very evident the pony was not about to leave.

“You could argue with him when we arrive where we’re going—just so we won’t be out here in the open if the
Jaiqi
come to check, I mean,” Stormrider suggested mildly. “In addition, you might care to notice that it is getting dark. Not that I wish to intrude on such a tender moment between man and beast.”

A snort and an irritated shake of the head from Starwalker.
I am not a beast—not as others are—I am Starwalker—star child, as well she knows since neither are the wolves beasts like others
.

“You touched a sore spot,” Raptor commented to Stormrider. “Irritated him I believe.” He glanced at the wolves again, then back to Starwalker, a new thought occurring to him.

Jaw thrust forward, he addressed the dun pony. “We aren’t talking about an entire herd here are we?”

Stormrider gave up all pretext at seriousness and laughed.

She remembered her own beginnings with the wolves and laughed a little harder. How glad she was that she had not had an audience when they had joined. First mind-touch is most disturbing. She, no doubt, would have appeared every bit as ludicrous as Raptor, had there been a crowd to observe them. She knew she should probably point out a few things, such as the fact that he did not have to speak out loud for the pony to understand him and that she could mind-touch with the wolves, but not the pony, as he would be able to touch the dun but not the wolves.

Doubtful
. Starwalker answered Raptor’s question in reference to a heard, thought slicing through the warm ripplings of Stormrider’s laughter.

“Just doubtful?”

I do not know everything, “Sachem”.

Strongheart woofed impatiently, the sound a cross between a strangled howl and a huff, then started forward, obviously having used the last of his patience and willing to wait no longer.

Stormrider strode ahead to join Song Dog as The People fell into step behind the wolves; some walked proudly, strongly, others had to accept assistance, leaning heavily on a companion.

Raptor watched them a moment, then turned once more to Starwalker. “Just so I understand this,” he said, watching Strongheart lead with an authority flowing about him like a cloak rippling in a stiff breeze, “who is to be leader of our herd?”

Starwalker tossed his head and rolled his eyes, for addressing Raptor as Sachem, to his way of thinking, had already labeled Raptor as such
. I have no objection if you wish to consider yourself leader, Sachem
.

Another wary glance at Strongheart and Raptor was satisfied. “All right . . . for now. We’re partners. No herd. Just us.”

Raptor tabled the discussion for the moment, following in the wake of the wolves, Stormrider and The People. Starwalker trotted in sprightly fashion on his left side, puffs of yellow dust rising in tiny clouds from beneath his feet.

Debate was at an end—for the moment. Still, curious glances continually turned his way. Raptor cringed at what this dun pony’s determination had revealed about himself; his origins. The People had their tales about the Chosen ones, and Stormrider fit into that category. He was a different matter.

He was not of The People, but there could no longer be any doubt that he was of Nashira. None had ever known the fact save himself.

None ever should have known. Nashira should never have known his tread again. It had been a mistake coming here, no matter what the stakes, no matter what the bounty. But he had forgotten the old tales of Nashira, put them aside as unimportant; tales of beasts and humans; of miracles and magic and, had he remembered, he never would have considered himself as candidate to be one of the Chosen. He was a bounty hunter and a wealthy man. A man without a heritage, without a past. Without encumbrances.The knowing look in Stormrider’s eyes had changed all that and now he felt as naked as she had when they’d first met and she had realized how much he knew about her. It was the tingling caress of the finger of fate; of
deja’ vu
; of swift retribution.

* * *

The city of the Ancient Ones was as Stormrider remembered it. Empty and quiet.

Yet occupied. Permeated by an essence. Strongheart, though, seemed to have a new impression, a clearer sense of where he was going and where everybody else should be going as well. He led in a loose wolf trot, flowing on ahead of his charges, then returning again, pink tongue lolling, golden eyes gleaming.

The preternatural silence she remembered pervading the stone buildings hung in the air as they entered the soaring chamber where she’d experienced her face-to-face encounter with the being. Stormrider wasn’t entirely comfortable. Memories of that last meeting and what had happened so quickly after were still strong within her. However, the wolves led on with an assurance which drew them along behind.

Starwalker had some difficulty in negotiating the stairs leading upward, but once inside his unshod hooves clacked proudly against stone floors, the tempo setting the pace of their progress. Raptor cast him an irritated glance which merely served to encourage the pony to tap dance with even more precision, head tossing, mane flying in the fading light.

The setting sun outside brought with it the usual current of cool air reminding those fleeing the
Jaiqi
they weren’t properly equipped for nighttime in Nashira. If some among their numbers were poised at the threshold of illness as Song Dog said, a cold night huddled together would be of no benefit.

They passed the pedestal where Stormrider had met the being who had exhorted her to retrieve The Amulet—for purposes not the same as she had been charged with in her role as Janissary. The essence; the presence remained. Stormrider felt that presence steal in about her, brush against her.

The room flared with orange, yellow, the mauve of the oncoming sunset, then dimmed quickly, yet the luminescence of the soft, white walls remained as a faint glow lighting the way before them. A pale fairy-light which touched Strongheart’s silver coat with a pulsing blue. It was disconcerting, watching the blue light trail in his wake. The People trudged in his wake, Stormrider’s just ahead of Song Dog.

“The slavers will not find us where the wolves lead,” Song Dog said with total confidence. “Grey Wanderer shall know The People owe you much.”

Stormrider smiled faintly. It was the highest praise Song Dog could think to issue and it was well delivered.

Frequently she glanced back over her shoulder as they followed the padding footsteps of the wolves and frowned at the obvious sickening of some of their group. Looking further, she spotted Raptor and the dun pony. Not that she needed to look to reassure herself of their presence with the clickity-clacking of Starwalker’s hooves tapping a constant rhythm in her ear. But something had changed. The bounty hunter had boosted a couple of the weaker members of the group up on the dun’s back and they were continuing on, the pony’s sprightly gait undiminished.

“How much farther?” Stormrider tossed the question out to Strongheart with growing anxiety and all three wolves glanced her way.

It seemed they had been traveling through connecting halls guided by little more than a soft radiance and the fairy-light blue of Strongheart’s aura forever. Right turns. Left. Doglegs. She was dizzied by the course they wove. It occurred to her to wonder if she, alone, could find her way back the way they had come.

Mindtouch from Littlefoot. Warmth. Security. Reassurance. Safety.

Not far.
This from Strongheart.
We must not stop now. If we do there are those among your people who will not be able to continue.

“The wolf answered you?” Song Dog asked. “The People are in need of rest. I fear the illness among them. There will be a place to stop soon?”

Stormrider nodded. “He said it is not far.”

A rough, grinding, grating sound assailed them from behind. Stone dragged against stone. Loud. Echoing in the vaulted halls.

Stormrider whirled in time to see Starwalker tucking his haunches beneath himself in his effort to move with more alacrity despite his burden, hooves clattering even more swiftly, as a sheet of stone slid across the rear end of the gallery they had just traversed. Ahead the passageway again narrowed. Behind, they were now cut off from any possibility of retreat. In dumbfounded silence dust drifted, sparkling flecks in the soft, luminous light.

Reaction followed instantly.

Stormrider bristled.

Raptor spun and cursed, immediately placing disbelieving hands upon the rough/smooth, contradictory surface of the now solid stone.

Yet there was a breeze touching them all, coming from somewhere up ahead. More, it possessed a sort of acrid tang; a heavy, moist wave which had not been noticeable when the air had had free flow of the passages. And, it did not possess the chilled bite of the passages behind them.

Only Strongheart and the other wolves didn’t appear alarmed.

There is no danger.
Strongheart assured Stormrider.
The Ancient Ones have but closed the passage against the Jaiqi. They will not be able to follow now. All within are safe.

The great wolf was visibly more relaxed, the peculiar halo of the quiet city seeming to have caught up with him at last. Strangely, there was no less light in the corridor with the passage sealed off behind them. It seemed warmer as well. Stormrider guessed they must be deep within the mountains out of which the glimmering city had been carved.

Still, she was wary. This wasn’t what she had expected—not that she had known what to expect. She trusted Strongheart, but it would not be impossible for him to make an error in judgment. She tried to open her senses to more refined input and wondered if the strange being of her earlier experience was near.

Raptor was more abrupt and to the point.

“What by the Gods of the fourteenth moon is going on?” He threw his hands in the air in frustration after finding the passage most securely sealed. “What does the wolf know about this?”

“He says we’re safe now. The
Jaiqi
will not be able to pursue past the stone behind us.”

“That’s a surprise? Of course they can’t come after us through that! They’d need high explosives if they could even tell
we’d
passed through it. The question here is can
we
get back through it? How did it get there? I can’t even find a crack. There’s no mechanism. How did it move? Who’s trying to take such good care of us?”

“The Ancient Ones I would imagine,” Stormrider observed.
 

It is they
. Strongheart confirmed.

“It’s them,” Stormrider passed it along with a short nod.

Raptor slightly raised an eyebrow. Rich brown-gold eyes flashed a pent-up message. One which spoke volumes about involuntary confinement—however well-intentioned. He had heard of the Ancient Ones, long ago, when living in Nashira. But he had believed them no more than fanciful childhood tales. Never had he seen or heard anything to make him believe any differently.

“I’ve met one,” Stormrider mused as if reading Raptor’s thoughts. “He was rather . . . encouraging.”

“I think we should make sure we have an exit before we continue on,” Raptor growled.

The Ancient Ones would not prevent you from leaving if that was your true desire
. Starwalker pressed his thoughts on Raptor.

“You’ve met them too I suppose,” Raptor shot back.