Treasure So Rare (Women of Strength Time Travel Trilogy) (25 page)

"I carry the deep knowledge of this time, and yet,
there are other memories that nag at me."

"Your thoughts became attuned to this time and life, as
if it were the only life you knew." The abbess lifted a brow. "It was
all agreed upon." She stood. "I would ask that you see to your horses
and retire. Morning is soon upon us."

Erik looked at Iliana.

"I shall bed down the horses," he said.
"Maybe we can snatch a few hours rest." He knew she would not sleep.
He was worried at the dark shadows now under her eyes.

"Come with me," the Abbess said, leading the way
from the courtyard, back into the dark walls of the monastery. She opened a
wooden door to a small, cell-like room and indicated Iliana should go inside. A
pallet with linen cover, a candle on a small table beside a hearth where small
embers still smoldered.

"Erik of t
he
Merry Maiden
, your chamber is down
the hall two doors."

"Thank you," he said and watched her walk away.

"Iliana, we must hope for the best that Ulrich brings
William to safety."

She nodded, not looking at him as she sat on the pallet. He
bent down, placed a kiss on the top of her head. "I wish I had words of
reassurance that would take away your pain."

She gripped the hand he placed upon her shoulder, but she
could find no words of her own.

Erik left to take care of their horses. As he went outside,
he thought of the fear in Iliana's eyes. He fed and watered the horses, noting
two fresh horses in the stables.

Their horses needed to be rested, having run for the best
part of the day. They would have run the poor beasts into the ground if they'd
continued, even the hefty destrier he'd taken from Camdork.

Erik stared at the other two horses. One was a mare, sleek
of body and yet sturdy, the other a white bulky stallion housed at the far end
of the modest stable. Erik wondered why there would be such an impressive
looking stallion at a monastery. Could it belong to another visitor?

Erik lifted a lantern from a peg and held it up, using the
meager light to stare at the stallion. Intelligent eyes, full of life as
indicated by the horse taking a turn and then another in his small enclosure.

Erik hung the lantern back on a peg and walked back to his
own saddle. He knew he could hang for horse thievery, but if he could start out
tonight, find Ulrich or the child...

Quickly, he saddled the stallion and exited the stable.

"My lord Erik." A young man stood in the
moon-washed courtyard, his face partially lit by the flaming torches set into
the stone wall behind them. His hair looked white blond in the flickering
light. In his hand he held Erik's leather flask, wet and full of water. Dressed
simply in peasant's garb, there was nonetheless something about the young man
that drew Erik's attention. His eyes appeared strangely dark.

"Thank you," Erik said, and he tied it against the
back of his saddle.

"The abbess instructed you stay along the edge of the
red soil as far as the upside down tree, then enter the hills along the path
you will find."

Erik stared at the young man and the somewhat dull look in
his eyes. Was he being sent into a trap? "How will I find it in the dark?
Light is hours away."

"You will not be mistaken in finding it," was all
the young man said. "God speed."

"Thank you. Please take care of my Lady Iliana. Tell
her I will return as quickly as possible."

The young man bowed his head. "Yes, my lord."

Erik rode off into the night, sending Iliana a heartfelt
apology for leaving her behind, but he knew it would be too dangerous for her
to ride out. He might not make it back and he would not risk her life. He had
to try to find William.

Iliana held her hand up to shield the candle's flame from
the night air. Quietly, she moved into the stable, holding the candle higher so
that its meager light threw shadows over the stabled horses. She saw the
lantern on the peg and moved to light the tiny wick with her candle, blowing
out the small candle flame. The lantern was still warm, so Erik must have just
gone inside to find his bed.

Iliana knew she risked her horse to ride her without rest
after the long grueling day, but what could she do? She could not sleep while
her son was out in the hills somewhere with that mad sorcerer.

She held the lantern high and realized there was a third
horse in the stable. She went to study the mare, noticed her alert and somewhat
kind eyes. She bit her lip. The mare looked well rested.

"My lady --"

Iliana let out a muffled cry and turned to the young man who
had been sleeping on a small bed of straw.

"I -- I thought to borrow this horse," she said
quickly, "I did not mean to steal, but these are dire circumstances. I
cannot wait for my son to be found."

"My lady," the young man said calmly, "please
do not enter the red soil whereupon you have gone before. The short hills will
light a path for you, but remember to always tread carefully along the edge of
the red soil until you see the path. If you do not heed this warning, disaster
could follow."

The man, dressed simply in a long black tunic over a white one,
led the mare out into the main area of the stable and held her while Iliana
saddled her. Iliana moved quickly, afraid at any moment she would be denied the
horse.

"It is time for the green gem to rise once more,"
the young man said as Iliana prepared to mount the mare.

Iliana snapped her head around to stare at the man. He
pulled his long black tunic over his head and held it out to her. "The
night is bitter cold," he said. Even though he wore a blank expression,
she sensed intelligence behind his eyes. Iliana accepted the tunic and quickly
pulled it down over her head.

"What do you mean about the gem rising?" Quickly,
she mounted her horse.

"It has been over a century in time -- the gem must see
daylight before the harvest moon. If you do not bring it into the light, it
will not be found for another hundred years or more and by then we shall all be
lost."

"That is only two days," Iliana said desperately,
wheeling the horse around as the animal pranced nervously.

"The hills are silent tonight because the fighter
dragons have been called into their master."

"Who is the master?" she asked, trying to follow
his meaning.

"The sorcerer. It amuses him that you are coming."

"Thank you," she said. Iliana touched her
slippered heels to the mare's sides, and they trotted out into the night, the
moon was weak but better than a black night as she rode out of the courtyard
and across the small moat. The saints help her, she would need her wits fully
about her if she was to survive this night and the next. The abbess had said
she'd come full circle, but a circle really had no beginning or end.

¤¤

Ulrich heard the buzz above his head before he saw the first
fighter dragon. He looked down at the child, and saw the child looking up at
him in the dim light as the sun began to come up over the hills.

"William, I believe the sorcerer knows I have
flown," Ulrich said grimly. His horse walked, and he could ask no more of
the animal. They had run most of the night, trying to put distance between the
sorcerer and themselves. He felt a deep churning in his gut, a feeling he had
not had since he was a boy going into his first battle. For whom did he fear --
himself or the child?
Death for the child and the
depths of Hades for him.
Ulrich gave a deep chuckle, despair something
he had long ago stopped feeling.

He knew it would be a gruesome death, and he could not
welcome it for the child. He pulled his dagger from its sheath, looked down at
the child. Surely it would be easier for the child if he killed him quickly
than let him suffer the horrendous tearing apart by the fighter dragons? A
small hope began to rise as he saw they were close to where the red soil ended.
Perhaps they could make it that far.

The dragons began to dive, hitting him on the shoulder.
Ulrich sheathed his dagger, tightened the linen which held the child to him and
untied his shield from his shoulder. He used the shield to keep the dragons
from their heads. His mount ambled along as if in no hurry to go in any
particular direction. The fighter dragons were buzzing all around them, diving,
and he held up his shield again and again.

The lightening sky was thick with their sour breath, their
wings beating, the din filling his ears.

A grouping of rocks was in front of him. His horse stopped,
fell to its knees and Ulrich threw his leg over the saddle and with the child
jumped to the ground and out of the way as the poor horse fell dead.

Ferociously, the fighter dragons descended in one big swarm.
William seemed to look at the sky in wonder, his green eyes wide.

Ulrich tried to run to the rocks for shelter, but the
fighter dragons were now at his legs, ripping the boots from his feet. He
walked the last few yards to the rocks on feet raw from bites, his leather
chausses sheared from him from the knee down. They attacked his back, dug into
his flesh. Ulrich used the shield to protect the boy, wishing now he had used
his knife to end the child's life quickly. Damnation, how had he failed in
this!

He climbed through the rocks, falling to one knee.

The linen binding the boy tore apart under gnashing teeth,
and William came free, tumbling to the red sandy soil, mercifully landing in a
small depression between the rocks. Unable to bear any more, Ulrich fell
forward upon the rocks, William beneath him. He let out a last great roar to
the heavens above, the new morning sky dense with a dark swarm of fighter
dragons.

¤¤

Erik followed the curiously illumined path, eyes straining
not to lose the little sparkling grains of light beneath his horse's feet. The
sun arose suddenly in this world, stealing hot and bright across the red soil,
its brilliance winking at him, almost blinding him. Upon large rocks lay a
bloody remnant of a body with arms and legs splayed. The only reason he
suspected it to be Ulrich were the remnants of wild black hair still clinging
to the scalp.

With terrible dread Erik looked around, dismounted, walked
among the rock, into a small crevice, hoping to God to find William.

As far as he could see...empty red soil, the hills ahead,
rising against the sky. A great depth of emotion ripped through him, his chest
tight as frantically he continued walking, searching for something, a clue.
Where was the boy?

"William!"

Nothing. Everything was empty, save the carnage before him.

Moisture burned behind Erik's eyes. Ulrich died unjustly.

Was William gone then? Air heaved from his chest, turned
into shuddering gasps of breath. A child gone...Iliana would be devastated.

A child's cry. Again
.

Erik fell to his knees, lay down beside what remained of
Ulrich, and heard the whimper. Ulrich's shield lay beneath him. Carefully, he
rolled Ulrich to the side, wiping the blood from his hands, and lifted the wide
shield which rested upon the rocks.

William looked up, blinking in the sudden light. He held his
arms up. "Da, da, da."

Erik took a shuddering breath and lifted the boy, held him
securely in his arms and came to his feet, eyes burning as his chest heaved
again.

"William!" Iliana's scream made him turn to see
her gallop toward them across the arid red soil.

Erik carried William and moved away from the rocks.
"The path!" he shouted in warning. "Stay on the path. The ground
is unstable."

One moment Iliana was there, the next she and her horse
disappeared, as if swallowed whole by the red earth. A cavern had fractured in
the precariously dangerous ground around them, leaving a gaping hole.

¤¤

Iliana coughed, spit the dust from her mouth, sneezing as it
went up her nose. She rubbed her palms over her eyes, trying to clear the grit
so she could see. The mare lay beside her, sat up, shook her head and came to
her feet. Iliana looked up from the dark hole she had fallen into. She could
see Erik's silhouette above her, William in his arms.

"Erik! My darling Erik!" she cried. "You've
found William." She started laughing. "You found him."

"Yes, he is found and now we must make haste to leave
this place. Are you hurt?" he called down.

"I am fine." She laughed again, feeling giddy. She
used her mare's legs to pull herself upright, then leaned against the horse's
shoulder. She let out a small moan of pain.

"My ankle," she said.

"Have you broken it?" he asked.

"I do not think so."

"Can you see light at all?" Erik asked. "Is
it possible it's an old cavern that might lead out? There are many caves up
here."

Iliana looked around her, her eyes adjusting to the dark.
"Yes, there is a light. Shall I follow it?"

"Be careful. Can you mount your horse?"

Iliana gritted her teeth as she tried to mount, the weight
on her ankle putting dark circles before her eyes. She tried again, and managed
to lay across the saddle, then swing her leg over the horse's hindquarter.

"I will follow the light," she called up to Erik.
It no longer mattered about the ankle. They had found William. She would endure
any pain.

Iliana followed the cavern down, because that seemed to be
where the light led. However, going down further and further made her
increasingly uneasy. What if after all this, she was buried alive in the red
soil hills? What if she came out into a cavern where fighter dragons lived?
They would rip her apart.

Suddenly, she saw a twinkling of light along the dirt floor.
She recalled the words of the young man from the monastery;
tread carefully along the edge of the red soil until you
see the path.