The pillars of creation

CHAPTER 20

Light suddenly hurt her eyes. Je

Je

Ahead, beyond the meadow, the ground descended into the gloom among spreading trees, trailers of vine, and hanging moss. Strange calls, clicks, and whistles came from under the verdant shroud.

"In the middle of winter. . " was all she could think to say.

Tom lifted the feed bags from the back of the wagon. "Might be a nice place to spend the winter, too"-he gestured with a nod down the hill, under the tangle of growth-"were it not for what people say comes out of there. If it weren't true, I'd bet there would be some fool who by now would have tried to give it a go, here. But, if they have, they were pulled in there by some nightmare creature and never made it back out."

"You mean, you really think here are… monsters, or something, in there?"

He rested his forearms on the wagon's sides as he leaned in, right over her. "Je

"But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I just allowed you to go bounding in there as if it were some lark and then you ended up never coming out. Maybe it's just talk; I don't know; I've never gone in there. I don't know anyone who has ever gone in there without being invited in-and that's from the other side. People say you can't go in the back and live to tell about it. If anyone would insist on attempting it, it would be you. I know you're here for an important reason, so I don't expect you're going to sit around for days, waiting for an invitation."

Je

Tom swiped back his fall of blond hair. "I just wanted to tell you the truth of what I know." He hoisted the feed bags on his way to the horses.

Whatever was in there was in there. She had to go in, that was all there was to it. She didn't have any choice; if she wanted to get Sebastian away from his captors, she had to go in. If she ever wanted to be free of Lord Rahl, she had to go in.

She reached under her cloak and touched the hilt of her knife. She wasn't some town girl, scared of her own shadow, unable to defend herself.

She was Je

Je

"Drink? It's water-I kept it hooked over the hame so the horses would keep it from freezing."

The cold had dried her out and she drank eagerly. She saw Tom wipe sweat from his brow and realized only then how warm it really was. She supposed no proper self-respecting swamp full of monsters would allow itself to be frozen over.

Tom pulled back the folds of cloth of something he held in one hand. "Breakfast?"

She smiled at seeing a meat pie. "You're a thoughtful man, besides being a good man."

He gri

Rather than be pulled into any kind of a conversation having to do with her hunter, she diverted him from the subject. "You'll be right here, then? When I come back, I mean? You'll be waiting, so we can get back?"

He peered back as he lifted the breaching strap over the horse's rump. "You have my word, Je

By his expression, he was swearing an oath. She smiled her appreciation. "You should get some rest. You've driven all night."

"I'll try.»

She took another bite of the meat pie. It was cold, but good, and it was filling. As she chewed, she glanced at the wall of green beyond the meadow, at the darkness within, then appraised the iron gray sky.

"Any idea what time of day it is?"

"Sun's been up an hour, at most," he said as he checked the joints on the leather straps. He gestured back the way they had come in. "Before we started down into this low place, we were up above this fog and mist. It was su

As somber as it was below the dark overcast, such a notion amazed her. It looked like dawn had yet to arrive. It was hard to believe that the sun was shi

After she was finished eating the meat pie and had brushed the crumbs from her palm, Je

Both horses looked back occasionally at Tom as he removed all their gear, or rolled a dark eye toward Je

"I'd better get going. There's no time to waste." He offered a single nod. "Thank you, Tom. If I don't get another chance to say it, thank you for helping me. Not many people would have done as you did."

His shy grin appeared again to show his teeth. "Most anyone would have helped you. But I'm pleased to be the one who was able to."

She was sure he meant something that she didn't quite understand. Whatever it was, she had bigger worries.

Her eyes turned toward the echoing calls coming out of the swamp. There was no telling how big the trees were because the tops disappeared up into the mist. As large as they looked, the trunks would have to be enormous. Vines descended out of the mist, along with any number of other twisting climbing plants enshrouding the limbs of the huge trees, as if trying to wrestle them down into the darkness below.

Jermsen searched the rim and found a ridge descending from the edge of the meadow, like the spine of some huge beast beneath the ground. It ran down in under the spreading limbs. It wasn't a path, exactly, but a place to start. She had lived in the woods her whole life and could find a trail others would never know existed. There was no trail into this place. Nothing, it appeared, ever went in. She would have to find her own way.

Jermsen turned back from the edge of the meadow and shared a long look with the big man's blue eyes.

He offered her a small smile-respect for what she was doing. "May the good spirits be with you, and watch over you."

"And you, Tom. Get some sleep. When I get back, we'll need to ride hard back to the palace."

He bowed. "By your command."

She smiled at his surprising ma

The swamp held heat gathered under its skirts. The humidity was like a presence waiting to push intruders back. With every step it grew darker. The quiet was as thick as the damp air, and the few calls reverberating through the darkness beyond only accentuated the hush and the vast distance that lay below.

Je

Turning, looking back, she saw a tu

Je

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw, looking back, that the way she had come in was the only way to enter, at least anywhere close that she could see. There were steep walls where the rock dropped downward. The meadow had been like a mere shelf in the mountainside's descent into the swamp. Below the meadow, the walls held a wealth of plants that used the rock for support as they climbed upward from the swamp below. The ridge she used for her descent was a mere fold of rock that provided a way for her to climb down. Without it, the walls were too steep.

Taking a deep breath for resolve as she gazed about, Je

She soon came to realize that many of the trees she had seen up higher had only been the canopy of towering, ancient oaks rising up from ledges in the rock. She realized that she had mistaken some of their upper limbs for trunks. Je