Both fell into the dark earth.
CHAPTER FOUR
As Tal and Milla fell, the Storm Shepherds dived after them. Swooping down, they grabbed their new companions and shot back out of the crevasse. Just as they cleared the rim, the giant crack snapped shut, spraying earth, stones, and mud into the sky.
"Free!" boomed Adras as he rose up into the sky, Tal dangling from one puffy hand. "Free!"
"Free!" sang Odris. "Free at last, of the hateful hill!"
"Well, not exactly," shouted Tal. "You are Spirit-shadows after all. Or you will be when we get back to the Castle."
He wasn't sure what the procedure was now. If he'd bound Adras to him in the usual way, the
Storm Shepherd would be a servant and would have to do what he was told. But he was a free companion.
Somehow, Tal thought, every time he got himself out of trouble he created a whole lot more for himself as well. Nothing was ever simple.
Thinking of trouble made Tal look across at Milla. She was hanging limply in Odris's grip, clearly still dazed by the blow to her head.
"And you are my Chosen," answered Adras, which made Tal frown. "Where do we travel, Tal?"
"Down, for a start," said Tal, suppressing a shiver. They'd gone up a long way very quickly and it was cold. Old Hrigga Hill was far below them, with the new lake surrounding it. He could see the forest, the one where the trees had walked away. They had stopped on higher ground, quite a long way south.
The sun was almost down now. It had settled behind the line of hills to the west. The stars were quite clear above the hills, gleaming in the constellations of Aenir, many of them familiar to Tal from his early childhood. His family had always spent their first night in Aenir after the Day of Ascension looking at the stars. There was the many-starred cluster called the Jewel Box, and the triangular formation known as the Dragonhead, though Tal didn't think it really looked like one.
They reminded him of his family so far away, beyond his grasp.
It was easy to keep staring at the stars, but that would not help his mission. Tal looked away. He had to think of what to do next. He had to forget about his lost Spiritshadow and focus on finding the Codex.
The Codex would help him find Gref. Gref was the first step toward reuniting his family.
One step at a time.
"Adras has not left the bounds since the Forgetting, and I have been bound all my life," said Odris, gliding closer and interrupting Tal's thoughts. "It is strange to do more than look upon distant lands. Where shall we alight?"
Tal peered down. There was the lake, the forest, and wide patches of bare grassland. He could see a ring of standing stones, but that was probably best avoided, for strong magic and stronger creatures made such places their home.
There were also some low hills, but Tal didn't like the look of them, after his experience with Old Hrigga. That was the trouble with Aenir, he thought. You could never tell when a hill was just a hill.
"How about there?" he asked, pointing to an area of burnt-out grassland. It looked like a fire had raced through within the last few days. Hopefully this meant that the earth was just earth, and anything else that might have lurked there would have fled the fire.
The Storm Shepherds began to drop down. Tal noticed that Adras got quite a lot colder as they fell, and that he kept looking across at Odris and adjusting his rate of fall to match her speed.
Tal sighed. It was already clear that Adras who would be his Spiritshadow back in the Castle -was not the smartest of Storm Shepherds. Big and powerful, but a bit of a Dimmer when it came to brainpower. It was even worse than he feared. A smart Spiritshadow was of enormous help to an ambitious Chosen. A stupid one was quite the reverse.
"Milla? Are you all right?" Tal called out as Adras dropped him the last few stretches down on the blackened earth. The fire had been recent, because he could still smell it. The odor of burnt grass was very strong.
Odris hovered even lower than Adras and gently lay Milla down. The Icecarl didn't move.
Tal hurried over. Milla must have hit her head harder than he'd thought. He knelt down beside her and mentally ran over the healing spells he could cast with his Sunstone. But if she had a really serious head injury there was nothing
Suddenly he found himself on his back, with Milla's knee on his chest, and her bone knife at his throat. She leaned close, her eyes wild and her mouth set in an animal snarl.
"Traitor!" she shouted and dug the point of her knife into his neck, hard enough to draw a thin trickle of blood. "You sold my shadow!"
"But we had to " Tal tried to say. Milla was really going to kill him this time, he suddenly knew. The knife hurt and she would need to slide it in only a little bit more.
"I
should kill you," hissed Milla. "Shadow-stealer!"
She returned the knife to her sleeve. Tal sighed in relief. But his sigh was cut off as Milla suddenly pushed her thumbs against two nerves on his neck. She pushed quickly three times. On the third push, Tal's eyes closed and his head fell back.
Milla stood up. The two Storm Shepherds looked at her.
"I suppose I should defend my companion," said
Adras, looking down at Tal's unconscious form. "I felt that, too, you know."
"But then you would have to fight me, brother," said Odris.
Adras shrugged. "He seems to be unhurt."
"Give me back my shadow!" Milla screamed. She drew her Merwin-horn sword and cut at Odris, but the sword just went straight through the cloud-flesh. The bright Merwin horn could cut shadow, but here in Aenir, Odris was not a shadow.
"I can't," said Odris plaintively. "We are tied together now, until the end of our days. I will go with you to your "
"No! No! No!" screamed Milla, hacking away at the Storm Shepherd. But her furious blows only exhausted her. Odris bore them without flinching. Adras merely watched Tal, crouching at his side like a huge statue carved from fog.
Finally Milla stood back and took several very slow breaths. She was using a Rovkir exercise, to prevent the onset of berserk fury.
"You'll get used to it," said Odris.
"No I won't," said Milla. "I will give myself to the Ice."
"There isn't much Ice on Aenir," said Odris.
"There might not be any. It's a hot place, on the whole "
"I will return to the Dark World," Milla stated coldl
y. "I will find the Chosen Enclave and force one of them to show me how to cross back.
Then
I will give myself to the Ice."
"Why?" asked Odris.
Milla stood staring into space for a moment, then she whispered, "I cannot be an Icecarl without my shadow. I cannot be a Shield Maiden without my shadow. I am no one without my shadow."
"But I'll be your shadow when we " Odris started to say. Before the Storm Shepherd could continue, Milla turned and ran out into the star-flecked darkness.
Odris sighed, a big sigh that swept up a cloud of charcoal dust that blew over Adras. He growled, and puffed himself up a few times to shake it off.
"I have to goafter her," said Odris. She sounded a a bit surprised. "It feels very odd to be bound to a person rather than to a
place."
"It does, doesn't it?" agreed Adras. "I hope mine wakes up soon."
"I will try to bring mine back," said Odris. "Make sure you tell the wind where you are, Adras, so I can find you. And don't go across to the Dark World without me."
"I will - won't," replied Adras. "I mean, I will tell the wind and I won't cross."
The two Storm Shepherds slowly billowed their arms out to touch palms. Then Odris leapt up into the sky. She drew the wind around her and set off after Milla.
Adras sat back down and looked at Tal. Somehow he could feel that the boy was all right. He was only sleeping now.
It was odd being bound to a person, Adras thought, as his own breathing matched Tal's, and he felt his lightning-charged eyes begin to close. Storm Shepherds rarely slept, but he felt like it now.
As his eyes closed, his body lost its form, arms and legs spreading till they joined. The dark, threatening cloud in his middle smoothed into fluffy white.
Within minutes, Adras became a circular mass of low cloud, hovering above the sleeping Tal.
Out in the darkness, three creatures looked upon the sleeping boy and considered what he might be like to eat. Tongues flicked in and out, sampling the air. There was a bitter tang to it, something to do with the cloud. Something that hinted of danger.
The creatures hesitated. Perhaps the sleeping Chosen was not the easy prey they sought. They touched tongues, exchanging information. Together they would decide whether to attack… or not.