Chapter 66 Quest for the Sanctuary
"Rever's sure, are ye?" Farren's voice was skeptical, his arms folded as he looked at the rolled- up diploma gripped in Rever's fist." You lead a sprinkle of us into the mountains on the strength of scraps of paper and half a myth? Sounds like daftness."
Rever closed his fist over the chart, his aspect fixed." Crazy or not, it's all we have got. The vaticination has led us this far — do you suppose I am going to abandon it now?"
Mara guarantied the strips on her satchel, advancing." We are not questioning your judgment, Rever. But this is n't a regular quest. This is a trip into the unknown. nothing's been inside that sanctuary in centuries, if it indeed exists."
Farren took a harsh breath, shaking his head." And what if it does n't?"
Nalin, who had remained silent until now, eventually spoke." also we'll know that we tried our stylish. More to go seeking the unknown than to sit back and let fortune decide for us." His voice was bent , but his fritters tapped on the bow of his dagger — a small, unconscious habit that betrayed his unease.
Rever glanced at his friends' faces. Five of them in all — Mara, Farren, Nalin, Orris, and Luthien. Effective and able, but not a large party. That was the question no one was stalwart enough to ask.
He breathed in." We depart at dawn.However, now's the moment to speak, If you are out."
No bone said a word.
Farren wrangle," You suppose after everything, I'd leave you to go alone? Just swear to me you will not get us all killed, Rever."
A faint smile twitched at the corner of Rever's mouth." No pledges."
They rode before dawn, the forestland boxing their forms as they worked their way through thick leafage and the bad ground of the lower hills.
" Still all trees and jewels," Orris complained after several hours. He shifted the pack on his shoulders and demurred a loose gravestone out of the path." Some noble sanctuary this is turning out to be."
Luthien glanced up from where she was examining the chart." tolerance, Orris. The symbols suggest we need to find a swash first — something retired, like an underground beck . It will not be egregious."
Farren scarfed." Yeah. Because the vaticination is each about keeping it simple."
Rever did not join in their bickering. His focus remained on the road before him, on the feeling in his gut. Something was driving them something impalpable pushing him along, as if by an unseen string attached to him and whatever lay beyond these mountains.
They traveled in silence also, the weight of anticipation heavy upon them. The sun dipped lower in the sky, the murk reaching far over the jagged earth. And also suddenly —
A crack.
Rever reined hard, raising his hand. The others set.
" Something passed," Nalin gasped, fritters on the bow of his brand.
Rever's eyes swept across the trees, the jagged escarpments before. The air shifted, thick with something implied, something awaited.
A howl. A nippy breath.
And also
" DOWN!" Rever screamed.
An arrow zipped by his observance, burying itself in a tree with a repulsing crunch.
Chaos erupted.
Men bounded from the copse, black leathers sheathe , bounding like ghosts. Their brands glistered in the fading light.
" AMBUSH!"
Farren was formerly applying his brand, running into an bushwhacker. Essence disaccorded, sparks flying. Mara dashed in, cutter flashing as she finessed a reckless rent, sinking the blade into the ribcage of the bushwhacker.
Rever had little time to lift his brand when another of them came at him. He sidestepped the stroke, also swept his brand in a flowing bow. A cry of pain, a figure crashing to the ground.
Orris swore under his breath as he sidestepped a blow." Who the damn hell are these?"
" Bandits? Mercenaries?" Luthien gritted her teeth and drew an arrow. She loosed it, hitting a target dead on in the casket." Does not count — keep moving!"
Rever's head was spinning. This was not an impulsive attack. These were men who were lying in delay. They knew.
Another man dashed at him, faster than the others. Rever slightly saw the glint of a crescent blade before it was swiping at his throat. He dodged, spinning, and punched his elbow into the man's caricatures. The man crumpled, but before Rever could strike again, the opponent was formerly back on his bases.
Too nippy. Too exact. Not a typical bickerer.
Their brands disaccorded in a flurry of strikes, the meter too indefectible for an average bandit. The bushwhacker was professed, stropped —
And also he addressed him.
" You should've gone back, Rever."
The words set him for a half-alternate — time enough for the foreigner to have time to strike. Seizing pain barred along his side as the blade created a shallow crack.
Rever snarled,counter-attacking with a brutal strike. Their blades disaccorded again, eyes meeting.
" You know who I am," Rever growled.
The man sniggered." Of course I do."
And he was gone — in the murk as snappily as he'd appeared.
The other bushwhackers fell back, fading into the trees like specters.
Silence. The only noise that dallied was the harsh breathing of the group.
Mara wiped blood from her brand, glancing at the trees." What the hell was that?"
Rever pressed a hand against his crack, mugging at the pain." A warning."
Orris swore under his breath." A accursed mysterious bone ."
Nalin turned to him." They honored your name, Rever. That signifies they knew we were arriving."
Luthien knelt by one of the dead assaulters, searching them. A sprinkle of coins. A ragged scrap of material. And something differently.
A symbol.
She held it above, her expression grim." This — I have seen ahead."
Mara's breath hitched." The old order. The bones who tried to destroy the vaticination centuries agone ."
Farren frowned." also they are still out there. Still trying to keep anyone from getting too close."
Rever removed the symbol from Luthien's hand, studying it. A serpent wrapped around a fractured star.
He looked out across the darkening horizon.
" The sanctuary is there," he said, voice resolute." And someone will kill to keep it a secret."
There was tense silence. And also Mara spoke up, her voice slightly a tale.
" What if we are walking into an ambush?"
Rever exhaled." also we fire it on our own terms."
There was no arguing. There was no turning back now.