'I know, Mother!' Elionbel hissed, gripping her hand an squeezing it tight. 'And one daylight he will pay dearly for it.

'But worse than that,' continued Martbel, 'his seed is growing inside me; it is tearing and gnawing at me, feeding o me. Oh, what am I to do?'

Elionbel stared at the hood of the malice, her head pounding with hatred, her eyes glittering with rage. Slowl'

her hand sought amongst the secret folds of her skirt an found the cold bra.s.s handle of a dagger that she had kept we hidden. 'I will kill him,' she muttered, closing her fingen around the hilt.

'No, No!' cried Martbel, taking Elionbel's hand away frog the dagger. 'Keep the blade a secret and use it to kill the Nightmare's seed the moment it is born. It must not survey and grow for I fear it will have uncontrollable power am

~ 1.

~ 1.

spread a terrible shadow across Elundium. Promise me that you will kill it. Promise me!'

'I will kill it. I promise!' Elionbel replied, taking her mother back into her arms and rocking her gently backwards and forwards. 'I will destroy the Nightmare's b.a.s.t.a.r.d before it takes its first breath.'

Krulshards pulled the hood of the malice down over his face and laughed, gloating in the darkness. He had heard every word and whisper through the life thread, and now sat wondering at the power he had created through raping the Marcherwoman, searching amongst all the Nightbeasts and Nightshades he had ever sp.a.w.ned for a parallel, but there was none. Nothing he had hatched in the darkness could have carried his seed out into Elundium. Nothing he had made before was both light and dark. Bending his finger he summoned Kerzolde to him and pulled him into the malice, wrapping it tightly around them both.

'The Marcherwoman, Martbel, carries my seed. What does that mean? How will she sp.a.w.n it?' he asked.

Kerzolde thought for a moment, a cruel leer splitting his hideous face. 'She will give birth to a child, Master. It is the way the people of Elundium sp.a.w.n. It will be a part of both of you, but since you are the Lord of Darkness she will carry the

strength and power of your image in her belly.'

'My image!' he whispered. 'That would think as I do and

hold all I hold as beautiful. That would spread my darkness throughout Elundium!'

'Yes, Master. It is already a part of you. It is your seed!'

Krulshards laughed, suddenly realizing a part of the power that he had created. Gripping Kerzolde in tight fingers he hissed, 'Guard my seed, and keep sharp eyes on the other woman. She has a blade hidden in the folds of her skirt. Let her keep the blade and give her no warning that we know that she wishes to kill my seed.'

'Master, she is a great danger. Let me kill her now!'

'No!' hissed the Nightmare. 'She is payment against

Thanehand and she must hang in the City of Night. s.n.a.t.c.h my seed the moment it is born and kill the Marcherwoman, Martbel. She has pledged to kill my seed and will be a greater danger.'

'Master,' Kerzolde answered, 'the newborn Lord of Night will need its mother's milk for nourishment. It is the custom for the people of Elundium for they are weak born and helpless and need time to grow strong.'

Krulshards laughed, 'Nightbeasts are hatched and battleready before the new sun rises. Even Nightshards are only a few daylights in the making, but take the newborn seed from the Marcherwoman and keep it safe. Let her feed it until it is strong enough to stand alone, bind her if necessary, then you must kill her!'

'It will mean many daylights of careful watching.'

'Then watch carefully, Captainbeast!' Krulshards snarled, 'and let not the Elionbel near my seed. Its life is your life, its death will be your despair.'

Kerzolde bent and licked once at the Nightmare's toes, then slipped out of the malice into the gathering darkness.

Elionbel sat huddled beside her mother, unable to sleep. The cuts on her knees wept and oozed from the daylight's hard climbing through the desolate landscape and yet they were nothing but scratches against what Martbel had told her. How was she to kill the monster when every movement was watched by the broken-clawed Nightbeast? Below where they had stopped, a dark stretch of water reflected the star-brigh'

sky and she stared down at it, searching for an answer. A cry broke the night silence, scattering the grey swans across the lake. Krulshards sprang to his feet, the malice billowing against the night sky. Below, a blade flashed in the darkness and a horse neighed fiercely. Silence once more blanketed to surface of the lake and the swans returned to the shadows o

the bank.

'Thanehand!' Krulshards hissed, putting a hand over tl,

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women's mouths and pulling them behind the malice. Elion struggled against the Nightmare's grip, biting at his smothering fingers, trying to shout a warning to whoever held the blade.

'Run!' snarled Krulshards, pushing Elionbel and Martbel before him. 'Run!' Kerzolde s.n.a.t.c.hed up Elionbel and Kerhunge bundled Martbel beneath his arm, and tirelessly they followed the Nightmare through a broken gap in the line of bare hills that towered before them. Krulshards halted on the lower slopes and put a dribble-wet finger up into the bitter wind.

'The marshes will freeze!' he laughed. 'Before the daylight they will have become the winter ice fields, treacherous and impa.s.sable. Bring the Marcherwoman into the shadow of the malice and walk in my footsteps. Tread to either side at your peril.'

Krulshards drew the hood of the malice up over the top of his head and hurried down the slope into the rock-strewn marshes. 'Keep to my footprints!' he shouted into the first drop of freezing rain.

Elionbel kicked against Kerzolde's iron grip but he only sneered and squeezed her tighter. 'Keep still, Marcherwoman, or I will disobey the Master and throw you into the black marshwater.'

Elionbel stopped struggling and pushed her anger and frustration back deep into her heart. Thane had been close to her, she had felt his presence in the darkness. It must have been him with the swans. Looking backwards over Kerzolde's scaly shoulders she thought she saw the graceful long-necked swans searching the edge of the marshes in the gloomy morning light.

'Thanehand!' she whispered, letting her head sink forwards, too tired to care that her long golden hair was snagging on Kerzolde's shoulder scales. 'Please find us. Please come quickly and rescue us from the Nightmare.'

'Faster! Faster!' shouted Krulshards, springing from rock

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ato rock. The black marshwater was beginning to ice over and push the rocks and boulders that marked the path into treacherous ground. Soon the way would vanish beneath the shifting ice field, covered by the snow that cut into their faces in stinging squalls. Krulshards looked ahead and saw the lowcut river meadows rising above the marsh edge. Sneering with delight he climbed up on to the firm gra.s.s-covered bank

and pointed back across the frozen marshes. 'We are safe, Marcherwomen. n.o.body, not even Thanehand, could follow us across the ice field. Watch a while and see the truth in what I say.' ~

Elionbel and Martbel stood dejected and huddled against the cold, watching the ice field spread out across the marshes, picking up huge boulders that lay in its path and hurling them into the black stinking waters. Fountains of sludge boiled up across the ice and froze into petrified slippery ridges. Rank gra.s.ses and bullrush flags became brittle ice-filled spears, rattling in the bitter wind. Everywhere they looked the greywhite ice whispered and groaned.

'None can follow us!' sneered the Nightmare. 'Not until the new sun melts the ice.' Laughing he turned, pulling Elionbel and Martbel along behind him.

'Let us rest!' Elionbel shouted, stumbling on to her knees.

Krulshards halted and spread the malice over them. 'There is no rest now, Marcherwoman, not until we reach the City o f Night. We are on the edges of Clatterford and must hurry to escape the cursed light the Crystal Maker forges into his arrowheads.'

Taking Kerhunge's twelve-tailed whip he cracked it at Elionbel's heels. 'Run, Marcherwomen' run!' he shouted, chasing them forward across the grey winter gra.s.ses.

Elionbel lost track of the pa.s.sing daylight as they ran through the bleak, seemingly endless gra.s.sland and nightfall brought no easing of the pace, only deeper despair as dark shadowy Nightbeasts sprang up out of the tall gra.s.ses around them and formed into two dense

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columns, one on either side of the exhausted women. 'Carry the ones who will lure Thanehand into the darkness,' laughed the Nightmare. 'Carry my Marcherwomen and let no harm come to them.'