Eventine stepped back two paces and knelt beside the Border Runners, her hand on the ground. 'We have been following the tracks of a single horse for one daylight through the wet gra.s.s, but if the Nightbeasts crossed here they must have killed it.'

Tombel turned and called his Captains forward, but each one in turn shook his head when asked if they had seen a horse wandering alone.

Eventine turned and walked to the edge of the torchlight, pulling her cloak tight against the rain. 'Where are the two travellers?' she whispered to Rockspray who perched forlornly, soaked through, on her shoulder.

She sighed and returned to Kyot's side and listened eagerly as Tombel told of the wreck of Granite City and the vanished King, but her eyes grew wet with tears as he told of Krulshards' attack on Woodsedge and the loss of his wife and daughter and of Arbel's capture as he tried to follow them.

'I will not rest until every Nightbeast is slaughtered,'

Tombel concluded, grimly, ordering his Captains back into

the crescent to ready the warriors for a night's march.

'Will you not wait and rest until morning?' Eventine asked, but Tombel shook his head.

'These Nightbeast tracks.will grow cold. We dare not wait.'

aKyot gripped Tombel's hand and asked him quietly if he could take the crescent of warriors towards Clatterford and keep it safe from the Nightbeast attack. 'Fairday is forging gla.s.s arrow-heads for us to use against the Nightmare and he needs as many daylights as we can win.'

'Not one Nightbeast claw shall touch the lawns of Clauerford,'

Tombel cried, leading the warriors forwards. ~

Kyot and Eventine stood hand in hand watching the.. slowmoving crescent with its flickering torchlight fade int o

the gra.s.slands.

'Clatterford will be safe now,' Kyot whispered, calling Sprint to his side and gathering the reins into his hand. 'Let us ride on and find shelter from this bitter rain.'

Eventine hesitated, looking across the dark bulk of the low ridges. 'No, Kyot,' she whispered, taking his hand again and: removing it from the reins. 'There is something here, l can feel it.

Look, the Border Runners are restless and cast around us in circles; they can scent something. We must wait for the new daylight and then search.'

Kyot smiled at her in the darkness and spread his cloak over them both. 'If the two travellers pa.s.sed this way you wil I find their tracks, I know it.'

Sprint and Tanglecrown grazed on the steep slope of the first ridge while Kyot and Eventine sat beneath a makeshift canopy made from their cloaks that they had stretched between the bows of Orm and Clatterford. They sat looking out across the darkened gully, listening to the rattle of the rain on the winter black reeds.

Kyot turned his head and for a moment he gazed at Eventine's still silhouette. 'Will you come with me to the Tower of Stumble Hill when the Nightmare is dead?' he asked.

Eventine turned to him in the darkness and rested her head on his shoulder. 'Nothing will ever part us. Not even the darkness of the Nightmare, Krulshards,' she whispered.

Kyot lifted his hand and gently caressed her tangled

hair. Long after Eventine had fallen asleep against his shoulder Kyot sat staring out into the rain, knowing a little of how Thane had felt after he had met Elionbel and seeing some of the pain he must be suffering now that the Nightmare had taken her.

Eventine moved, snuggling closer without waking. The grey hours had come and Kyot shivered, looking down at the glistening wind-bent reeds that showed in the half light. 'I will find the Nightmare, and rid Elundium of his foul shadow for ever,' he whispered, touching the arrows packed tightly into his quiver.

Eventine awoke with the first light of dawn, stretched stimy and looked out from beneath the cloak at the pouring rain. Dark shapes crossed the line of the barren ridges, flying close to the ground. 'The grey swans of doom!' she whispered, pointing up at the swans as they flew overhead.

'They call out the dead,' Kyot answered in fear, covering his ears and turning his head away.

Eventine laughed, and tugged at his arm. 'These swans are not grey. At least, the leader has a snow-white breast. Listen, they fly without making a sound.'

Kyot lifted his head and watched the swans flying from gully to gully. It was true, their leader was white. 'They are searching for something,' he whispered, lifting Rockspray up. 'Fly with them, search the gullies.'

Eventine stood up, took her cloak from the bows and shook it, scattering rain drops across the steep hillside. Ousious flew low across the reed bed, twisting her head from side to side.

Eventine shook Kyot's arm. The owl sees something in the reed beds. Look!'

Ousious descended into the gully, wheeling and turning slowly across the place where Thane lay, crying out his name with her silent voice. Rockspray stooped beside her shrieking in the dawn light. Eventine shaded her eyes against the stinging rain and stared out at the winter black reeds. 'There's

something there, in the reed bed,' she said, quickly drawing a gla.s.s-tipped arrow and necking it on to her bow.

247.

aSprint had lifted his head as the swans flew over and:: neighed as if calling to a lost friend. Tanglecrown pawed at the wet gra.s.s and cantered down to where Eventine stood. Kyot shook out his cloak, flung it across his shoulders and ran into the shadows of the gully, his hand on the feather flight of an arrow.

The gully had become treacherously swollen from the heavy rainfall and Kyot sank almost to his knees in the black mud on the edge of the reeds. 'Nothing could live in there,' he called over his shoulder as Eventine ran to join him. 'Be careful where you tread.'

Eventine suddenly stopped and knelt. 'Look, look at this!'

Kyot retreated out of the mud and looked down over her shoulder at a neat hoofprint in the soft earth. Stepping forward he found another, then another, right on the very edge of the reeds.

Sighing sadly he turned to Eventine. 'The horse we followed must have wandered into the gully and been swallowed by the marsh.'

Eventine shivered and began to turn away, pulling the hood of her cloak up over her wet hair against the weather, but something made her stop.

Something in the reed bed glittered in the grey morning light.

'Kyot, what is that?' she cried, pointing.

Kyot followed her hand, balancing on tiptoe to see between the reeds. 'There is a dark shape on the surface of the marsh!'

he said, uncertainly, stepping back and steadying Eventine on the edge of the reeds while she peered through the tall stems.

'Tanglecrown, stand for me,' Eventine asked as she sprang up into the saddle and looked over the top of the reeds. 'There is a clearing, the reeds have been cut and woven into a mat. It is floating on the surface of the mud with two figures lying on it. I think one of them is a horse. Wait! Something shines on the mat, something shines with the glint of beaten silver. ~

Kyot scrambled up on to Sprint's saddle and peered oui

248.

into the reeds following Eventine's pointing finger. 'Search for me, Rockspray!' he urged, calling to the owl who hovered silently into the air above the gully.

Stumble heard Kyot's voice sending the owl to look for them and tried to raise his head but the sticky black mud held him stuck fast on to the mat. Stumble's struggles woke Thane from his dark feverish dreams and he fought to open his mud-heavy eyelids. Far away he could hear a familiar voice above the rattle of the rain. Blinking, he looked up at the owl.

'Rockspray,' he cried, weakly, lifting the hand that held the finger bowl. 'Find Kyot and tell him ... tell him that the Nightmare has taken Elionbel.'

Thane's hand began to sink back into the mud at his side but as the base of the finger bowl touched the mud Rockspray's talons hooked around the rim and he took it, pulling it free of Thane's weakening grip, taking it up into the rainswept sky, beyond the tall circle of reeds.

Thane smiled, tears running down his dirty face. 'Kyot will rescue Elionbel,' he whispered, using the last of his strength to lift his hand and stroke his horse's neck. 'He will take up the task we cannot finish.'

Stumble suddenly freed his head from the mud and lifting it, he neighed as loudly as he could, his flanks shaking from the effort.