Thus each morning since Kyot first entered my house I have stolen a little drop of sunlight and hot-forged it into the arrow blades.'

'Stolen the sunlight?' Thane whispered, looking in fear at the grey goose arrow flights that stood just proud of the rims

of the quivers.

Fairday laughed, taking Thane's hand. 'As the sun rose, fiery and powerful above the gra.s.slands and cast its first ray

across my polished anvil I hammered out the molten gla.s.s, smoothing it and folding it over the sunlight, trapping a tiny point of light within the blade. They are rare indeed; forged a moment too soon and the sun is too weak, a moment too late and the light has faded.'

Turning to Kyot and Eventine he warned them to use the gla.s.s arrows only against the Nightmare. Turning back to Thane he held him for a moment, searching with his second sight in the dark daylights yet to come. 'Fate has armed your companions with the Bows of Orm and Clatterford.

Fate will arm you with bright metal,' he said quietly. 'It will arm you with a sword fit for a King to use

275.

against the Nightmare. Cry out and the sword shall be yours.'

'Sword?' questioned Thane, leaning forward.

But Fairday laughed, clapping his hands for the servers to lead them to breakfast and dismissing Thane's question. 'Let fate pull the threads that draw us all together, let fate keep you safe on the way into the blackest night. Come, or breakfast will turn into noonday food.'

Long after breakfast had been cleared away and the house of Clatterford stood wrapped in silence Thane took Kyot out on to the rain-wet gra.s.s and walked beside him, asking with fear in his voice, 'Did Esteron reach Underfall?'

Kyot stopped and turned towards Thane. 'He is with the Healer, Merion, at World's End. He is sorely wounded but safe from the Nightbeasts. He limped slowly on to the Causeway Field, with Mulcade battle-perched on his withers, putting our council to rout.'

Thane smiled, seeing again the proud arched neck and hearing the thunder of his hooves. 'Esteron,' he whispered, 'Oh, how I need you now.'

Rockspray dug his talons into Kyot's shoulder and hooted.

Thane looked at the owl. 'Would you find them for me?' he asked in a whisper, stroking the owl's chest feathers. 'Would you fly to World's End and tell them that the Nightmare has Elionbel?'

Rockspray spread his wings and hooted just once more before lifting silently into the sun-bright sky and turning towards the line of shadowy mountains that hid World's End from their sight.

Thane and Kyot pa.s.sed into the shadows of the tall yew hedge that bordered the waters of Clatterford and looked towards World's End. 'We will travel as soon as Stumble is strong enough to carry me,' Thane murmured as he turned towards the river bank. Laughing, he knelt and reached ou t his hands to the dark shapes that sat silently paddling against the current. 'The grey swans will find the fastest road,' he whispered.

276.

i,

1.

1.

Sliding down the bank into the water he gently stroked Ousious' downy chest, feeling for the wound Krulshards had made but all that he could find were the knot ends of Stumble's mane that he had used to sew the edges of the wound together. Easily he cut them with his dagger and let them drift with the current away beyond the lawns of Clatterford.

'You must sleep,' Kyot insisted, kneeling on the edge of the bank, beside Ousious. 'Sleep and rest and grow strong before we journey to the City of Night.'

277.

A.

New Nightmare

'Mother!' Elionbel cried, reaching out a steadying hand as Martbel stumbled on the steep mountain slope.

Martbel sank on to her knees, both hands pressed against her stomach. 'I cannot go on,' she wept, bending double with the pain.

Krulshards felt the tug of the life thread and stopped and turned, a snarl of impatience on his skinless face. 'Hurry, hurry!' he spat, with one eye watching the empty sky for danger. 'Get to your feet, Marcherwoman.'

'She is too weak to walk,' Elionbel shouted, her fists clenched in anger, her lips trembling with hatred.

The Nightmare's seed had grown too quickly inside her mother's belly, it had drained her strength as if sucking her life away, withering her with each daylight that pa.s.sed.

'Carry the Marcherwoman!' Krulshards ordered pulling the hood of the malice over the top of his head against the sunlight.

Kerzolde roughly slung Martbel across his shoulder and savagely pinched Elionbel's arm with his one good claw.

'Move!' he screamed, prodding her forward after his master.

A shadow slowly crossed the mountainside towards them.

Krulshards saw it and scrambled for shelter in a rough outcrop of rocks, pulling Elionbel after him. Kerzolde and Kerhunge followed, pushing Martbel into the shadows of an overhang of boulders.

278.

l

ill

'Quiet,' hissed the Nightmare, clamping his fingers across Elionbel's mouth. 'Quiet!'

Above them, high in the cloudless sky, an owl flew towards World's End. Elionbel struggled against the Nightmare's grip, kicking her feet wildly, sending the loose shale cascading in a steady stream into the depths below.

Rockspray saw the rocks slide and circled and stooped low over the outcrop of rocks. 'Nightmare!' he shrieked, seeing the edges of the malice where it overshadowed Elionbel's cloak.

Beating the thin mountain air beneath his wings he flew away from the rocks into the bleached weather-ruined branches of a mountain pine and sat frozen still, watching and waiting.

'Owls!' sneered Krulshards, pushing Elionbel back out into the sunlight. 'Meddling blinkless birds!' he muttered, dismissing the owl from his dark thoughts as he searched for the secret ways back into the City of Night, cursing Thanehand and his warriors for blocking the Gates of Night and sealing them against him. 'Follow!' he snarled, tugging on the life thread.

Rockspray sat unmoving throughout the long afternoon, watching the Nightmare scale the steep slopes. He heard the curses and brutal screams as each new path they found led to a false ending.

'Blind fools!' the Nightmare shrieked, raising the lash again and again to beat his Captain.

'Master, the entrance is near. I can smell the pure dark air,'

Kerzolde cried, cowering backwards.

Krulshards looked eagerly from left to right, his nose almost touching the barren shale. He could also smell the sulphurous fumes and knew that the journey's end was but a pace away. 'There, it is there!' he shouted, pulling on the life