Sun's Heart

Chapter 7.2 - Through the Pass

They didn't stop until the sun lit the sky over the mountains with pale green and gold light. Summer in Hildor sweltered in midday, but the mornings were pleasant enough, even comfortable.

Gale's throat and mouth were parched, her stomach showing the first signs of hunger, but she trudged on. The shoulder supporting Wil felt like it was being dragged down by a sack of bricks. He wasn't a large boy, or heavy, but carrying even half his dead weight for hours without pause was enough to make her sag with relief at the chance to sit down.

Dain dropped Wil's other arm, leaving Gale to shoulder it all where she sat, and settled himself against a large boulder. They were at the foot of Ardos Mountain, within the entrance of the pass leading from Hildor to Sand Sea. Selias looked as spry as if he had hours of energy left, though he'd set a relentless pace for them during the last few hours of night.

"Wait here," Selias ordered, the first thing he'd said since they began the trek. "Drink little, but do not eat. Not yet." He hefted his strange, long-bladed spear-like weapon— Gale thought she'd best find out what it was called, for sanity's sake, or she'd call it long-bladed-spear-like-weapon for the rest of her life— and peered behind them at the tree line. "I will be back."

"What'll you do?" Dain asked.

"See what lies within the pass." And he was off, running over gravel and boulder-strewn undergrowth away from the forest.

Dain shook his head after him and sat down with Gale. "It's like he's mocking us." He peered down at Wil's face.

Wil's pale eyelids didn't move. The only sign he was alive was the rise and fall of his chest.

She frowned. "How?"

"He was nearly ready to collapse after he used a Healing spell, then he spent hours walking nonstop, and now he's ready to sprint further into the pass to make sure nothing nasty is waiting for us." He took a long drink from a waterskin pulled out of his bag. Gale had grown tired of carrying his bag, and he'd tired of carrying Wil alone. He swished the water around, eyes distant. His tone changed. Lower, softer. "Do you feel it?"

She adjusted Wil's sagging head against her shoulder. "Yeah." A spell of incredible power, unnoticeable until they'd entered the pass, awaited them on the other side of the range. Its strength grew the closer they came.

"You remember those lessons with Karm? Barriers can be made from pretty much anything, but dirt can't hold against Water. Air can't hold against heat. And on and on. So," he tucked his waterskin away and leaned toward her, "what do you suppose a barrier made of Light is defending against?"

She drank from her waterskin. "Selias knows." Except he said it was "shadowbeasts." Even she knew the tales. "Maybe that's why they're called shadowbeasts."

He shook his head and grimaced. "I don't think it's shadowbeasts. I think it's just something to cover up the truth. The tribes aren't known for being forthcoming about their magic." The taller man appeared around the bend again, jogging toward them. "They don't trust foreign mages any more than they trust other foreigners." He raised his voice. "Find anything?"

Selias' sun-darkened face held worry. "The pass is clear, for now. The barrier is weakened, but it holds steady." He slid his strange weapon into a short leather sheathe on his back and stooped to pick up Wil's unconscious form, easily cradling him like a child. "Take strips from your clothing and wrap them around your head. We must travel while the day is young."

Dain's sorrowful sigh voiced any complaints he had, but Gale was already tearing a sizeable length of cloth from the frayed hem of her overshirt. She handed it to Selias, then bent to rip another for herself, leaving little more than a baggy jacket with a gray sash tied around the waist of her trousers. She would have used the sash, had it not been holding her pants around her hips. Selias wrapped the cloth around Wil's head.