'We must get him to the Healer's,' he urged, putting his ear to the old man's chest again. The heartbeat was weaker now, and stumbling erratically.

'What of Krulshards?' Willow asked. 'He is escaping through the lower roads. I would lead you down into the heart of the mountain following his voice. But we must go now!'

Thane hesitated, looking from the low entrance where Willow waited on his answer back to the tunnel that led to the black gates and the late evening sunlight.

'I must follow the Nightmare, Grandfather,' he whispered, taking the old man's fragile hand into his. 'I saw the light beneath the malice and I dare not lose this moment to tread on his shadow and rid all Elundium of his terror.'

'The warriors are waiting for us, Thane,' whispered Kyot, fearing to follow another darker road. 'It would seal a great victory to take your grandfather out of the darkness,' he urged.

'But the Nightbeast had a shadow. I saw it!' cried Thane, 'It followed him through that black entrance!'

'Hurry,' urged Willow. 'Their footsteps are growing ever fainter.'

Thane twisted around, biting on his knuckles and took half a step.

'Thoron will die without the Healer's hand,' hissed Kyot, catching hold of Thane's sleeve. 'Is that what you crossed

22.

Elundium for, to leave him in the dark?'

'All Elundium will be covered in darkness if the Master of Nightbeasts escapes!' cried Willow.

Thane turned, his mind torn in two. He knelt to gather up Silverwing's lifeless body into his arms. 'What would you have done, brave Battle Owl?' he whispered in despair. 'Which road would you have taken?'

'All roads will be dark and dangerous if Krulshards lives,'

cried out Willow. 'Hurry before your victory on the high plateau turns against you.'

'I know I should follow the Nightmare, but I cannot,' cried Thane wretchedly. 'I cannot let Grandfather die!'

'Fools!' cried Willow, thrusting the broken splinter of steel he used as a dagger back into his belt. 'If I was half the warrior you are, Thanehand, I would follow Krulshards and rid Elundium of his foul darkness, but I cannot do it alone.'

'Forgive me,' cried Thane, wringing his hands. 'But to have found Grandfather alive was beyond my wildest dreams.'

'One life against so many,' muttered Willow, turning his back on Krulshards' fading footsteps. 'He will haunt us all, I know it.'

Tombel had paced a thousand steps between the Gates of Night as the evening light faded. Battle's end had come quickly and the Nightbeasts' carca.s.ses were piled high in great mounds waiting for a burning torch to set them alight.

Tombel saw movement inside the gates. Someone was emerging.

First Willow and then Thane walked out of the darkness.

Tombel laughed with relief and gave the signal to light the giant Nightbeast piles.

'Thane!' he shouted, silhouetted against the streams of crackling sparks that floated up into the darkening sky, 'You have rescued Thoron! Is he still alive?'

Thane hurried on to the plateau and carefully laid Thoron beside Amarch's cold body.

23.

'Call for the Healer!' he begged, unclasping his cloak and casting it across his grandfather's body to keep out the night chills.

Thoron shivered and slowly opened his eyes. Above him stretched a limitless sky, sewn with a thousand pale stars.

'Thane,' he whispered, searching the dark shapes that stood around him.

Thane knelt, taking the old man's hand into his. 'Sleep, Grandfather, you are safe now, beyond the Nightmares'

reach. I have sent for the Healer.'

'Thane,' croaked the old man, trying to rise, 'has Krulshards . . . ?'

the blood gurgled in his throat, making him choke.

Gently Thane eased him back on to the ground. 'Amarch came to your rescue, Grandfather, she chased the Master of Nightbeasts to the very Gates of Night. She is here at your side.'

Thoron slowly turned his head and looked into her soft eyes. Death had clouded them and age had whitened her muzzle.

'Amarch,' he whispered, large tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

'She was the first into battle,' Thane whispered. 'She led us to victory!'

Slowly Thoron lifted his hand and closed her eyes. Tears were running down his face and his shoulders shook with grief.

'She was the bravest Warhorse in all Elundium,' sang out the musical voice of Duclos the Swordsman, and he came forward and knelt beside Thoron, putting his hand on the old man's shoulder.

'A hanging basket of the sweetest lucerne gra.s.s will be set in the gardens of Gildersleeves in her memory.'

'And Sprint, the Archers' mount, shall run in her memory carrying a quiver of silver-tipped arrows,' whispered Kyot, kneeling beside Duclos and blinking back his tears.

'Then in memory of her greatness let us weave tales in the firelight, of all she did,' said Tombel, bringing Willow to kneel beside Thane.

'Tombel!' Thoron whispered, hearing his old friend's voice, and looking up from face to face. 'If tales of memory are threaded through the firelight then they must also tell of Silverwing who once rode to war on my shoulders, for he cast aside the cloak of a blind beggar and rose up to be the mightiest Lord of Owls in the darkness of the City of Night.'

Lowering his voice to little more than a sob he continued, 'He found me in the dark following rumours through a wild and dangerous land, long after all the other owls had come to my rescue with dead mice and stalks of gra.s.s for me to eat. He came, searching blindly, flapping damaged wings against the tunnel walls, to take up a lonely station in the mountain's heart, and guarded me with his life.'

'He is beside you, Grandfather,' Thane said. 'I brought his body out of that black place and laid him in great honour beside Amarch.'

Mulcade stooped to Thane's shoulder, hooting proudly as he looked down with sadness at his father's cold and lifeless body. Equestrius, the Lord of Horses, raised his head, calling out to the stars, the Border Runners howled and all the owls hooted in a chorus, while the warriors of Elundium talked until the grey hours touched the sky. They talked of the braveness and the beauty that they should never see again.

All night long the great mounds of Nightbeasts burned and crackled, sending sparks drifting across the high plateau.

Tombel called Willow to sit beside him, and while the Healer tended Thoron's wounds he listened to the boy's story, marvelling at the young man's courage and the quiet dignity of a people stolen by the Nightmare, Krulshards, and kept for time beyond counting from the light.

'And you know nothing of where you came from? Whether there were mountains, forests or streams?' asked Tombel, looking across the plateau to where Willow's people had

agathered around a Mghtbeast pyre. As one they were gazing up at the stars, their eyes shining with delight.

'Nevian, Master of Magic and Lord of the Daylight, he came into the City of Night and found my grandelder, Leaf, and gave him a tiny point of light, and with that light he showed him all the beautiful things above the ground in Elundium. Even our names came from that meeting,' Willow replied.