In the Rift : Glenraven II In the Rift : Glenraven II
Rhiana Falin trotted across Allier's Bridge and reined in her mount at the base of an enormous oak. She reached out to rest her hand on the trunk of the tree. "Here," she said.
The rest of the riding party halted. Val Peloral, eldest son of the local Kin lord, shook his head. "Lady Smeachwykke, this place is too far from the current boundaries of your town. If you expand Ruddy Smeachwykke this far, you will eventually more than double the current population within the city walls. You will destroy Hier's Plot and Little Greening and much of the Kin-Hera Triad with these new boundaries."
Rhiana brushed the hair back from her forehead and looked around at the forest. If the Kin negotiator and his associates had any idea how frustrated Rhiana had become, they would end the talks without reaching an agreement, and the Machnan of Ruddy Smeachwykke would continue to live on top of each other, to scrabble a meager living from too-small plots of land, and to resent the Kin who claimed the vast forests all around them.
"Lord Faldan," she said, trying to keep her voice pleasant, "historically, the Kin-Hera Triad was home to the Beling dagreth and to several families of tesbits. The Alfkindir Lord Hier used Hier's Plot as a hunting ground for stags. And a few Kin lived in the cotha in Little Greening." She smiled. "But all three of these pieces of ground have been abandoned for the last fifty years. Both Kin and Kin-hera have moved south into the Faldan Woods or east toward the cothas above Sinon. This portion of the Great Golian Forest is empty and unused."
"But it's ours," Val said.
"We know. We have always respected your claims to the ground. Now we wish to know what we can offer in exchange for it." She leaned forward in her saddle. "We aren't asking to expand to the south or to the east. We aren't asking to move into territory your people occupy. But I ask for my people, and for their children, that we be permitted expansion to the north and west, in exchange for such goods and favors as both our peoples find agreeable."
Val Peloral turned to discuss the matter with his associates: a second Kin man, a dagreth and a warrag. The other man was named Caet something; he was lower Kin, and was probably a companion rather than a fellow negotiator. The warrag was a massive black-furred yellow-eyed male whose leather tool harness bore the embossed crest of the Grallagg clan. The bearish dagreth Rhiana knew socially. His name was Tik and he came into Ruddy Smeachwykke from time to time to visit the market. Such visits weren't unheard of anymore, not since the arrival of the new Watchmistress had given the Kin and the Machnan opportunities to deal as allies instead of enemies. Still, Tik was something of an anomaly; a progressive among the usually backward-thinking Kin-hera. Rhiana considered his presence among the Kinnish representatives a good sign.
She turned to her own colleagues, Bron Egadon, who had been her advisor since the death of her husband earlier in the year, and Tero Sarijann, the architect who had designed the expansion plans for Ruddy Smeachwykke. She raised an eyebrow. Bron nodded slightly; he thought the Kin would deal. Tero, though, just as subtly shook his head; he anticipated no deal. She kept herself from giving any audible or visible response, and returned her attention to the Kinnish party.
Val and his colleagues came to some sort of decision, and all of them looked to Rhiana. "Let's ride back," the Kin lord said. "You can feed us and we will discuss the concessions we would like in exchange for granting you the land."
"So you'll do it?" Rhiana couldn't hide her smile.
"If you're willing to meet our price."
Rhiana nodded. She didn't dare let the Kin think she'd agree to anything, but she was willing to accept some fairly sweeping concessions in exchange for the land. "With work, we'll find something that will please everyone," she said. She thought that sounded neutral and not like self-abasement or groveling. "By all means, let's return. We've roast suckling pig and wild boar and stag on the groaning board."
They recrossed the Great Ruddy River and rode south and west on Allier's Road, through the deep gloom of the forest. The horses' hooves thudded on the hard-packed earth; the warrag and the dagreth made no sounds at all as they trotted alongside. Rhiana listened to the jingle of the bridles and the pleasant creak of leather saddles, and thought of beginning the expansion of Ruddy Smeachwykke in the next few days, before spring came and brought with it the urgency of tilling and planting and the endless cycle of calving and lambing. She imagined Tero's new streets spreading out to either side of her, replacing the endless darkness of the forest. They would be streets that didn't terminate in walls as the old ones had done, but that looked out over the fields beyond them. She imagined the new houses Tero planned, neat and narrow and double-storied, and the new guild halls and trade centers, like the ones the Watchmistress, Jayjay Bennington, was establishing down south in Zearn and Rikes Gate. She was just wishing for the hundredth time that Haddis had lived to see the changes that were coming to Glenraven when a scream ripped her out of her reverie. She turned in time to see an enormous gray-winged monstrosity pull Caet off his horse's back, rip his head off with a single bite, and swallow it. The monster kept the dead man locked in its claws and lifted with ponderous flapping of its wings for the forest canopy high overhead.
"No!" Tero shrieked.
She twisted around in her saddle and found that another of the monsters had grabbed him.
She looked up and saw the shadowed forms of more of the creatures lurking in the branches high above; some were spreading their wings to drop down on the people below.
"Ride," she shouted, and dug her heels into her horse's flanks. The warrag took the lead with the dagreth at his shoulder. Rhiana and Val rode neck and neck behind them, but Bron lost ground. His horse had been chosen because it could carry Bron's great weight, but it could not carry it quickly.
Why didn't we bring weapons? Rhiana wondered. We were so eager to show our trust in each other that we left ourselves helpless against anything else that might find us, and now something has.
Rhiana heard Bron scream once. His scream, like those of Caet and Tero before him, was short and horrible, but quickly silenced. Rhiana glanced at Val and saw that the Kin man was as frightened as she.
She heard one of the monsters bellow from behind them. They fled faster, taking bad risks by galloping on the uneven surface of the dirt road, but putting distance between themselves and the flying nightmares behind. Then an answering bellow erupted from the road ahead. Rhiana sawed on her reins so hard her horse nearly sat down as it skidded to a stop. Rhiana felt herself start to slide over her mount's neck. She tightened her thighs and locked her toes under the horse's belly and gritted her teeth.
She didn't lose her seat. Val made a more graceful stop, and the warrag and dagreth skidded around and took up positions facing in opposite directions, growling and snarling.
"What now?" Val asked.
Rhiana had an answer, but her answer didn't allow time for words. She was busy casting a gate spell. The spell was new to her; she'd learned it a few months ago and had only had two opportunities to use it since. She had to open a path into the spirit plane and locate and hold an anchor at the destination to keep the path in place until the traveler was safely through. The spell required intense concentration, and under the circumstances Rhiana fought for that. She created the gate, then struggled to find an anchor within Smeachwykke Castle. Briefly she latched onto the stone pillar in the central courtyard, but she was having a hard time maintaining her focus.
"There," Val said, and pointed upward.
Rhiana could hear the leathery flap of giant wings. She released the energy she had drawn into herself and a shimmering curtain of light appeared in the center of the road. She urged her horse forward and shouted, "Go!" Kin-hera and riders leapt through together. The monster dove for the gate, so close that Rhiana could smell the stink of it and feel the wind from its wings.
The four survivors raced along the shifting, glowing floor of the tunnel that cut through the spirit world, while around them the walls billowed and bulged. She'd done a poor job of forming the tunnel. The walls should have been as smooth and slick as ice, and they should have held steady. Instead they blew like fabric in a windstorm. Rhiana felt movement behind her and realized the flier that dove at them had followed them into the tunnel.
Maybe we can get out and shut the gate before it comes all the way through, she thought, but she didn't believe it. The monster was too close and too fast.
Rhiana felt a shift and a snap, and realized the tunnel had broken away from the feeble anchor she'd given it and established another, stronger anchor on its own. The four of them were going to come out someplace other than in Smeachwykke Castle. She didn't care. She urged her horse to greater speed. All she wanted was to survive.
"Darkness ahead," Tik shouted.
"That's the gate," Rhiana yelled.
Val shouted, "Faster! It almost has us."
The walls shimmered and fluxed, and the dark circle got larger.
Rhiana could smell the monster's breath behind her. She crouched low over her horse's withers. She didn't need to urge him forward. The gate was dilating open, but not fast enough. The warrag leapt through it with the dagreth right behind him. She felt her mount gather herself for the jump, and she wished she could know what was on the other side; would she be jumping off of a cliff or into water? Would she be leaping to certain death?
No time to think. Time only to do-and Rhiana did. She curved her back, tucked her head low, balanced her weight with her thighs, and she and the horse rose and sailed through the gate and out into the darkness beyond.