Read Online A Blackbird In Darkness (Book 2) by Freda Warrington - Free Book Online Page A

emerge. Be ready – you must not miss it!’ the Lady was saying. She kissed them both on the forehead. ‘Now go, with my blessing.’
    Estarinel and Medrian stepped into the cloud of blue light and disappeared.
    ‘I don’t know that his decision to visit Forluin was wise,’ Ashurek muttered. ‘Still, as long as they don’t lose their courage to continue...’ He turned and strode swiftly along the finger of rock back to the shore without waiting for Calorn or the others.
    Calorn watched him for a moment; then she made a decision, and started after him.
    #
    Estarinel and Medrian emerged from the Exit Point onto the soft floor of a wood. The change in their environment, in the very touch of the air, was so great that both stood amazed for several moments. The atmosphere lost its crystal clarity, but took on a warmer feel, pleasant and earthy. Late sunlight filtered down through the trees, outlining each leaf with silver and flooding the space between the trunks with a bronze haze.
    ‘It’s summer, just as if I’d never left,’ said Estarinel. ‘How strange to think a year has gone by. The voyage from Forluin to the House of Rede took months; I never really thought of the seasons changing here, while we were out on the sea.’
    ‘Do you know where we are?’ Medrian asked.
    ‘Yes. Trevilith Woods. My home’s about an hour’s walk, that’s all. I spent so much of my childhood in here–’ a rush of memories silenced him.
    ‘Come on, then,’ Medrian said, but Estarinel stood rooted.
    ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I don’t think this was a good idea – to go back in the middle of the Quest. I feel I’ve gone in a large circle and been nowhere. It’s wrong. I don’t want to see anyone – what can I tell them? That I’ve nearly been killed several times and achieved nothing? Yes, I’m back but the Quest still hasn’t begun, I have to go away again. Oh, they’ll understand when I explain… and then they’ll feel fear for me, and reliance on me, as if I could save them – all of them – just me. It was the easiest thing in the world to set out on this Quest… now it’s become the most difficult to carry on. It’s not fair on them to have to rely on me. I don’t want to remind them, when perhaps they’re starting to forget. I shouldn’t have come back.’
    Medrian looked at him. She felt very strange, as if she were floating. The Lady had spoken truth: M’gulfn had no power over Forluin, and for the first time she was free of it on Earth. But she still dared not relax, dared not allow herself to feel or behave any differently. She could not let herself show sympathy for Estarinel.
    ‘It’s too late,’ she replied quietly. ‘You’ve made your decision. Come, we can’t stay here for eighteen hours.’
    He stared into her dark eyes, wondering why he was able to hold her gaze when before it had filled him with coldness. She had always, in her own reserved way, supported him through the worst moments of the Quest; now she was in his land, and must be able to trust him as he trusted her. He sighed and tried to smile.
    ‘You’re right, as usual. This way.’ As they began to trudge through the glade, he added, ‘I’m glad you came with me.’
    She did not reply. She walked in silence beside him, the hem of her H’tebhmellian dress brushing the earth. She felt dreamlike, but she had never had a dream like this before; it was at the same time heartrendingly real, making the rest of her life seem a bizarre nightmare. She could appreciate the feel of the leaf-mould beneath her feet and the touch of breeze on her face, the silver-bronze sunlight and the rough, rich texture of tree-bark without suffering the Worm’s mocking punishment for daring to love something. For the very first time, she experienced normality; and it was everything she had longed for.
    They came from the ragged edge of the wood onto a broad meadow of grass and bracken. Green fronds filled the air with fresh aromas.