"Listen to me, child. I'm going to do something that will scatter them, but only for a moment. Do not look directly at them. When you see them disperse, come to me as quickly as you can without running."
Tova barked again.
Ashyn waited with her trembling hand on the hound's head. He nudged her reassuringly. Edwyn started to speak in that foreign tongue again, his words rising. When they hit a crescendo, the shadows seemed to break apart, as if blasted by a gust of wind.
Ashyn moved quickly toward the cave. She'd run before and if she was doomed, then she was doomed, but this wasn't the time to panic Edwyn by running. When she finally reached the cave entrance, the fiend dogs were re-forming. Edwyn pushed her into the cave, telling her he could handle this now. Tova stayed outside with him, growling at the fiend dogs as Edwyn continued working his magics.
There were seven others inside the cave, the remaining members of their party and the other warrior. When Ashyn saw the healer among them, she looked about frantically.
"Where's Ronan?"
No one answered. There was not enough room in the cave to hide an unconscious young man.
"Where is Ronan?"
"He's safe, my lady," the healer said.
"Is someone with him?"
"There was," the warrior said, and the others gave him a hard look.
"He is fine, my lady," the healer said.
"The elderly woman. Your assistant. Where is she?"
Silence.
Ashyn remembered the scream. That terrible scream. And the warrior's words--that someone had been with Ronan.
The warrior grabbed Ashyn's arm as she made for the cave entrance. "You cannot leave, my lady. Your young man will be fine. He cannot see the creatures nor run from them. He is safe."
Do you know that for certain? For absolutely certain?
They didn't know and couldn't care. Ronan was not important to them. Only to her.
Moria would storm out against their wishes. Yet Ashyn was coming to accept that she could not be her sister, and it was not a failure of nerve. It was a difference of inner composition. They might look identical without; they were not identical within. Running to Ronan's side would do little except make her feel better. It would not save him. It might even kill him, if she brought the fiend dogs with her.
Instead of trying to flee, she stepped out behind Tova and attempted to calm the spirits, and while she was not convinced it did any good, Edwyn encouraged her efforts.
When the fiend dogs had finally dispersed, one of the women came up behind her and whispered, "You are covered in blood, my lady," and when Ashyn looked down, she saw she was speckled and splashed with Tarquin's blood. Her throat tightened and tears filled her eyes as she said, "Yes, I am."
"Tarquin . . ."
"I--I'm sorry. We--there was a fox. Injured. We heard screams and--"
The woman squeezed her hand. Edwyn reached out and drew her into an embrace, in spite of the blood.
"He died as a warrior," Edwyn said. "In our faith, as in the empire's, that means his spirit will be honored in the second world."
Ashyn nodded. "I heard his spirit depart. I said prayers for it, but I wish to say more. First, I must check on Ronan."
"I will send someone--"
"No," she said, walking from the cave. "I will do it."
"It is not safe yet, child."
"If it is safe for others, then it is for me." She could tell he was going to argue the matter, so she broke into a run. Edwyn tried to come after her. Then the warrior cried out and Ashyn looked to see a shadow lunging at Edwyn. A fiend dog. But hadn't they been dispersed?