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"You did right good, lord," Harkane whispered-sometime during that blurry night ride. "You survived the elflord. That means you beat him. Your father never faced a duel like that inside the elflord's domain, where he's most powerful."
I didn't feel like a wi
I puzzled over the suicide sequence at length, once I started spending more time conscious than not. The only explanation that came close to making sense was that the elflord didn't think he could kill me by magic alone, and since he wasn't physically present, all he could hope for was to make me kill myself. I was guessing on insufficient evidence, though. I didn't know why he might have thought that his magic alone wouldn't suffice-because he thought I was an elf or because he knew I was Hero of Varay, or whatever. There was a chance that he wasn't certain just who I was. But if he caught me again, his ignorance probably wouldn't matter. He'd come close enough the first time.
Gradually, I started to get my wits back. Instead of feeling totally sapped and snapped, I just felt exhausted. The pain in my back and side settled into place again, throbbing as steadily as my heart. We stopped to rest the horses. I think it was the second time, but it was the first that I was really aware of. I almost managed to dismount by myself. When we got ready to ride again twenty minutes later, I didn't have to be tied to my saddle. But Lesh and Harkane did have to help me mount.
"What happened?" A
"I was right, it was the elflord," A
"We have to be out of Fairy before he comes for me again. There's no way I could survive that a second time."
"I think we'll be south of the swamp by dawn," A
"Trees won't hide me from him." I may have shuddered at that. We rode on for a few minutes before I continued talking. I had to do some thinking, and rational thought came hard.
"Let's just make the best speed we can, straight south-unless he sends troops after us. And we're not going straight to Arrowroot. That's too dangerous." Particularly with me useless for combat. "We'll try Coriander instead. We can get in and out of your uncle's castle quickly from there." Or from Basil, if it came down to that, I thought. I told A
"I guess I should react to that," A
I didn't say anything.
"There'll be fighting at Arrowroot, right?" she asked.
"Probably. The elflord has obviously found some magic that works inside Varay, at least as far as Arrowroot." That was another complication. If Arrowroot was under active attack, I wouldn't be able to take soldiers from there to fight the Etevar, and the entire foray into Xayber might be wasted.
"Coriander faces Xayber too," A
"Maybe, but maybe we won't be expected to head there."
We rested for a couple of hours just after dawn, near the edge of the forest. I managed to sleep most of that time. When I woke, I felt stronger even though my back and side still hurt. A
"Probably from when I fell on Lesh after the duel with the elflord," I said, and she nodded.
When I had new tape on, I managed to get up and walk around a bit. I wasn't up to anything strenuous yet, but I thought I would be able to take care of routine. A
We rode almost continuously for another two days and the night in between, resting only when we had to. By sunset the following day, people and horses were all dragging. I'd like to say I was feeling a lot better by then, but the best I can honestly manage is that I didn't feel any worse. The back of a horse isn't all that conducive to recuperation. With the burst of hard riding, though, maybe the pursuit (if there was any pursuit) would be too far behind to matter. That was the hope, why I was willing to keep going even though I was hurting. Anyway, we saw riders only once, and we were able to get under cover before they spotted us, thanks to An nick's eyesight and my returning awareness of danger. I didn't feel any probes from the elflord.
Luckily.
Eventually, we had to make a longer stop, spend the night in one place. We followed a small stream deep into the forest, wading two miles upstream. We were in place well before sunset. Harkane and A
"The way we've been going, another day and a half might get us to Varay," A
"I don't want the horses dropping under us in the stretch," I said.
"You think we'll have trouble close to the end?" A
"I'd almost bet on it," I said. "If the elflord's armies are really on the attack, we may have to go through them at either Coriander or Arrowroot." Usually, my guesses don't work out, but I might have been a card-carrying prophet with that one.
We had a quiet night and a peaceful ride the next day. The quiet night especially helped me. Then, after sleeping for half of the following night, we got an early start for our last day on the isthmus. Of course, we were also nearing the area that the chamberlain's map labeled "Here there be dragons," but I didn't take that very seriously. It's not that I felt cocky after administering the coup de grâce to one dragon-I knew that didn't qualify me as a proper dragon slayer-it's just that dragons didn't seem to tie themselves to any one spot. They didn't have to. They were arguably the "meanest SOBs in the valley," so they could go wherever they damn well pleased.
I knew we were getting close to Varay because I could feel the danger in front of us increase slowly, mile by mile, as we headed south. It was like a chronic ache rather than a sudden pain, and I had experienced enough of both kinds of pain lately to know the difference. That last night that we camped in Fairy-the half-night-I slept like the dead, not fully recovered from my duel with the elflord or from my physical wounds. I intended to take my turn as sentry to show the others that I was really recovering, but my companions vetoed it. Not that I argued very hard. A good Basilier meal would help. I found myself thinking about food a lot. I was looking forward to a chance to pig out again-too much of too many kinds of food too fast, washed down with about a barrel of beer. I think food was on everyone's mind.
"I ran a trotline all night," A