FicWad

Chapter 3 – Into the Woods

It is universal human experience – perhaps more widely overarching into general intelligent conscious existence – that sooner or later one will run smack dab into a situation that is supposed to be common or simple but really isn’t.

Stay on the horse, stay on the horse, stay on the horse, Sarah’s nervous mantra kept its steady rhythm in time to Cloud’s bodily movements and the swaying that they caused up top in his leisurely walking. Between the dim light-level (even in spite of the still-mostly-full waning moon riding high over them) and the girl’s own near-total inexperience, she wasn’t about to push her luck any further than she had to tonight. Sarilda had doubtless had the right idea in getting her away from the Arden Forest and its fell inhabitants, but Sarah was none too keen on trying for any shifts in the dark, either! The land continued its pattern of gently rolling grassy hills, the outer ripples of the upthrust of Primal Order. Once they had ambled over a couple of them, she spotted a few trees growing together in a thin stand and decided the sparse cover was better than none, to wait for the dawn. It took some work to figure out how to coax the horse to go in the direction that she wanted, but Cloud finally seemed to deduce what his untrained rider wanted of him and casually sauntered over.

“Whoa,” Sarah tried in Thari, pulling back on the reins once they were there; to her small relief the animal actually stopped. “Good boy,” she sighed, stroking his neck a moment; he nickered softly. She suddenly felt the weight of the enormous responsibility of caring for such a large creature when in all likelihood it would be all she could do just to survive out here herself, but at the same time she couldn’t shake the selfish sentiment that at least she wasn’t alone in this wilderness between the worlds, come what may. “I’m getting down now, Cloud,” she warned him. “Please hold still.” She had no idea what kind of response she would get from the animal if she lapsed back into English; it was probably bad enough that she was a total stranger in the night. Easing her feet out of the stirrups, she awkwardly managed to slide off the right side, landing on her feet sort of forward, windmilling her arms slightly. At least she hadn’t fallen.

It was only when she was dismounted that she finally noticed the saddlebags: she’d been so nervous back in the camp that their presence hadn’t even registered in her mind! Opening the flap of the near one, she discovered a couple brushes that had to be for the horse, along with a small bag of oats: emergency rations, she decided, leaving them where they were for the moment. The other side contained further rations – for both of them. Sarilda really had done the most she could to give Sarah the best chances of making it to her destination in halfway decent shape. That was something, anyway.

Of course, she was sort of wishing that there was a volume on horsemanship in there, too – there wasn’t; she was left to shift for herself on that count. Uneasily walking around to the front of the animal, Sarah studied Cloud’s bridle for a couple of minutes before even trying to take it off so he could graze. Her younger-self was right in that the head straps were easily removed over the ears, but the bit proved more of a challenge: he unexpectedly backed up from her, shying when she accidentally knocked his teeth against the metal once, his big liquid-brown eyes open wide as he snorted.

“Sorry, boy! Easy, easy there,” she forced herself to breathe, glancing down at his front feet for a second to make sure he didn’t step on hers’! At last it was done, though. “There,” she held the piece. “It feels good to have this out, doesn’t it boy?”

He unexpectedly nuzzled her, making her laugh, stroking his silky mane. Carefully hanging the equipment from one of the branches so that she would remember how to put it back on, she secured his saddle strap to a tree with a simple slipknot – it was the only way she could figure to secure him that would still leave his head free – before sorely wandering over to the other side of the stand. Everything from the waist down ached and/or burned something fierce, especially her lower back, hips, and thighs. The romantic dream of riding horseback across the mythic countryside had finally met up with the stark reality that this was a heck of a lot of exercise for the rider as well as the mount! Stiffly seating herself upon the hard ground, she extracted her canteen and took a long drink, reflecting that she was going to have to find – and keep finding – safely potable water for them both, but with any luck at least that would be relatively simple now that she had a good Pattern imprint. The Logrus had technically allowed for retroactive non-pull ‘location’ methods, but while she had proven capable of doing this, it always came with an attached feeling of awkwardness, like working from a mirror-image while at an odd angle. With trepidation she recalled what had happened the last time she had even tentatively tried to use her ‘new’ powers – with the crystal – but dismissed the result outright: the Lady had obviously been lying in wait for her like one of those green tigers; she had probably just been looking for a beacon of Pattern-power far from Amber…

That thought alone made her pause. Who would’ve even been looking for something like that? And why? How could She have known what She knew without being who She said She was?! Nobody aside of Sarah herself and the Pattern-ghosts of Corwin and Rinaldo even knew about that incident with Ghost-Brand out at the Argent Pattern! Oh, and Jareth of course…

Jareth. The name hung before her mind menacingly like an unexploded bomb. She had never learned what had happened to him from anyone, yet another topic she had never seen fit to ask King Merlin about in the presence of his Order-counterpart. It was almost frighteningly easy to imagine her current predicament if the former Goblin King had been captured by practically anyone other than His Excellency – or Mandor, for that matter! There had probably been an inter-shadow warrant out for his arrest as a dangerous defector. Even simple knowledge that he existed at all might’ve seemed valuable to someone; there was no denying that Jareth appeared to have indirect access to some surprisingly high-level Chaosian secrets. Had some minor noble – or even an outlaw – picked him up and decided to go into business for themselves? It seemed a dismally plausible scenario… which could mean that whoever it was might just as easily zero in on her the moment she used any power at all! She sensed no tracking spell on her person, but that didn’t mean that… ! She gave an aggravated little cry – and heard a replying neigh from the other side of the tree!

If she kept up this level of paranoia, she would truly drive herself crazy, or worse yet irritate or upset her transportation. Lying back on her cloak, wrapping it about her like a blanket, she gazed up at the stars – and for one strange dreamlike moment had déjà vu of being back in the library at Mandorways again, with that huge, scientifically accurate display of the Order heavens; in spite of the height of that ceiling she began to feel trapped, claustrophobic… but then a gentle breeze blew past her, breaking the mental spell of memory, and she sighed in relief, closing her eyes. There was no point in worrying about it all night. Tomorrow she would decide what she needed to do, even if that meant shooing the horse back into the Forest to go find his way back to his camp and his people again, if she wasn’t sure he would be safe with her.

She watched the celestial mobile of countless stars and galaxies ever-so-slowly swing round overhead until her eyelids drooped, then shoved closed from sheer psychological exhaustion…


It started innocently enough
With a long, lanky prince
Wearing a kimono, colorless – both –
In the moonlit rock garden
(the old one)
Practicing his Kendo Kata,
Katana in his unsevered right hand
Meditating
As he had not done in over
300 years
When he still deigned
To live among us
As a friend.

The princess
Who saw him from a
Third-story balcony
Thought she must be
Dreaming
Until she came into the
Orchard
And found that an
Apple tree
Was freshly pruned
By the sword.


The bright golden dawn found its way under the cracks of Sarah’s eyes, prying the reluctant things open again. Squinting against the insistent glare, rolling over to get the sun out of her face, she was immediately choked by the cloak she was still wearing, forcing her to sit up instead.

Take it off first, she thought irritatedly, the vision of Mandor using his travel jacket for a blanket in that car briefly flashing by behind her eyelids as she stiffly scooted forward, looking about at where they had ended up; it had been too dark to see very far the previous night. Slowly coming to her feet, her muscles were still a bit sore as she hiked up to the top of the nearest hill and scanned about in all directions. She could no longer make out any vestiges of the Arden: all about them was lush, rolling countryside with absolutely no signs of civilization or people anywhere. Their present locale was totally pristine, untouched, scenic as a picture-postcard. They were completely alone out here.

Cloud, who had already eaten and was fully alert and standing at attention, lifted his head in her direction upon hearing her rise, his ears forward, those big innocent-looking eyes watching her expectantly as she came back.

“Morning, Cloud,” she said softly, walking over to him, reflecting that she probably should’ve removed the saddle also, but to be honest she had been sort of leery of the possibility of not being able to strap it back into place correctly afterwards. “Hope you had a good night’s rest, boy,” she patted his neck in passing, hearing the soft noise he made in response. Even with all the probable hassle of caring for one of these creatures, she could easily see how one could become attached to them – and the thought was accompanied by a fair modicum of guilt. Someone would be missing this horse, transportation and companion rolled into one. She would have never accepted him at all had she not been so terribly desperate, but her younger-self would’ve have had it any other way, and Sarah had taken for granted that the girl knew what she was about here. A traveler alone might very well not survive long without a reliable mount in this region.

Cloud stamped a little, ready to be untethered for the day, but Sarah wasn’t ready to depart just yet. Digging out her morning provisions (such as they were – more dried meat and biscuits that resembled hardtack chiefly, although there were slices of dried apple in there, too), she ate while studying the geography tome – her only remaining lifeline to humanity.

She had to admit that the contents were impressive, and not just due to the richly-painted illustrations and immensely detailed instructions that lay within. Random Barimen really was doing his best to rehabilitate his half-Chaosian niece if he was allowing her access to this level of knowledge! To be blunt, the volume was probably intrinsically priceless, made in Amber by an Amberite – possibly even one or more of the older princes – for the audience of the Royal Family! The text spoke of far more than regions, topography, history and culture: it actually detailed the possible mechanics of the shadow-walks necessary for attaining each destination, what differences in stimuli should happen along the approach to certain shadow-worlds! Sarah had been taught correctly that the idea of ‘distance’ between two Shadow-places was strictly arbitrary, and yet – at least starting out from the True World – there did seem to be a source of measurement, regardless of the timescale involved in the journey, which depended on how many changes were necessary to alter the landscape away from the answer to the algebraic equation that was Amber. Many paths were still possible in this intellectual format of probabilities, and yet it could not be denied that there were circles of gradually decreasing similarity – hence, the ‘Golden Circle’. Kashfa was artificially a considerable ‘distance’ from Amber, yet the place shared a land-border with the True City’s nearest shadow-neighbor (second only to Rebma): Begma, the land that Sarah had pretended to have been from the last time she covertly visited Amber.

Or, to be more precise, both Begma and Kashfa physically bordered Eregnor, a resource-rich stretch of land that both countries had argued and fought over since time-immemorial. It could be difficult to ‘walk’ to Begma unless the coast could be followed all the way (which was all but impossible because Amber’s own coastline was fairly choppy; it was still far easier to sail there, even though it took far longer), but Eregnor could be reached in this manner if one was scrupulously careful in ‘introducing’ the indigenous plant-life of the intended region in a very specific order… and all of it was beautifully painted in oils, along with the botanical descriptions. Once Eregnor was gained, one could simply continue on into Kashfa without much interference from the locals and minimal shifting requirements; the same could not be said of traveling to Begma from Eregnor, for a knife-thin, long mountain range lay inbetween the two shadows. The duration of the trip was entirely dependent upon the traveler and their relative skill-levels; a hellride was technically possible yet not recommended due to the slight, nitpicky shifting involved – it would be almost too easy to overshoot the destination entirely.

In short, it looked doable… with decent transport, i.e. a horse; the journey might take three times as long by foot for a beginner. Whilst time was definitely of the essence here, Sarah wasn’t about to rush off to her death by being careless, either. She closed the book, taking a swig of water; a slow-moving stream would be the first thing she would have to locate today. “What do you think, Cloud?” she called back to him. “I know we just met, but do you feel like going on a little adventure with me before I try to get you back home?”

Cloud snored his impatience to be going already, pawing the ground in front of him.

“Alright, alright,” Sarah laughed, finishing what she had to do to get ready. And momentarily considered the tracks they were leaving. If Julian decided to…

Cloud was right, she quickly decided: it was time to get out while she still could. Taking down the bridle from where she’d hung it the previous night, she had a sudden thought, smelling the bit.

‘Treat him like you would treat yourself’…

Sarah had had a couple of friends later in high school who’d had their teeth straightened and had to wear retainers; she couldn’t imagine putting one in her own mouth without at least rinsing it off first – they could get to be kind of gross in a hurry. Going back for her canteen, she very gingerly trickled a little of her precious water over the piece of metal – she couldn’t afford to spare much – before bringing it back to Cloud, presenting it.

“I’ll try to be more careful this time,” she reassured him, passing the bridle over one ear, then getting him to open his mouth and inserting the bit past his teeth as if she were playing ‘Operation’, easily slipping the rest over the other ear. Only to realize that the reins were in front – she had to do it all over again! Cloud patiently cooperated, waiting for her to get it right, watching her a little uncertainly.

“Good boy,” she kept reassuring him, “good boy. I’ll get better at this, I promise.”

Untying him from the tree, she managed to awkwardly mount him again, getting into a passable position in the saddle. Several experimental verbal cues, clicks and nudges later, they were moving once more.

At least the general area was hilly for some distance ‘naturally’, it appeared – likely the reason Sarilda had brought her out this way: mild obstructions of view hid shadow-shifts more readily than a flat expanse of nothing, or even grassed plain.

Okay then, Sarah began to concentrate after a few minutes, allowing the repetitive motions of Cloud’s body beneath her to lull her in to a light meditative state: she would do it right this time, darn it! Calmly. After a while longer she gave the reins a little shake, and the horse eased into a smooth canter. Beyond the next two hills, Sarah spotted the small, slowly meandering stream she had desired to be there and led him over to drink his fill before continuing on, following the new body of water.

Just little changes. Slowly, she admonished herself, concentrating again. Over the course of the next three hours all that altered in the world around them were a few different wildflowers mixed in with the grass, the hills growing gradually hillier, the sky beginning to leach just a little of that impossible blue. This was right. It was a good rate of progression, healthy for both participants. She stopped for a late lunch in a thin, scrubby vale and let Cloud have the smaller bag of oats; he deserved it for putting up with her, she reasoned, although he didn’t seem to mind her general ineptitude half as much as she suspected she would’ve, had their roles been reversed. Reviewing the book, she adjusted course by the position of the sun a bit to the west, ruefully having to leave the stream behind as they gained both elevation and some evergreen trees. Their way continued both smooth and broad as she wished; they climbed a well-worn path up into the mountains that looked like it could’ve been there for the past five centuries and not the past five minutes like it probably was. Gaining a high plain in a short-grassed valley, the riding was easier again by the time the sun was setting; by dusk they had traveled all the way across it and were at the edge of another deeply-shaded, thick, old-growth forest. Deciding to make camp just outside, Sarah tethered Cloud to a near young ash tree while talking to him – she couldn’t be certain, but it seemed as if he understood at least bits of what she was saying – making a scanty meal of more rations for herself. She still didn’t feel completely comfortable about removing the saddle, but she located the straps to loosen it this time, and did her best to brush Cloud down, even working under the saddle blanket as well as she could manage. She took one of the brushes she hadn’t used on him to her own hair – that was a mess, too – before braiding it back tightly so she wouldn’t have to worry about it again. It was quite a bit cooler up here even with her woolen cloak, and after a while she was beginning to wonder whether she would be able to get any sleep at all, shivering as she was, when Cloud surprised her in the dark, settling down beside her with a light snort.

“Thanks, boy,” she yawned, snuggling up to his warm side, propping up against him. In seconds, she was asleep.


Raucous laughter and bawdy songs
Ale drunk and poured and spilt among friends
All stopped on an obol
The moment a ghostly prince walked in –
Caine, paler than he had ever been in life
Colorless
Yet in high spirits himself,
Once a king in a place like this
(yet not the Concord Tavern on Concorde Street
for it was too new.)
Confused, irate, he berated their
Inhospitality and lack of decorum toward him
Silently
Though his lips moved
And he mouthed adamantly
For them to continue as they had been.

Space was made for him
In one of the polished leather booths
And ale brought by a pretty lass
Who he gestured to stay and drink also,
As in the old days of his youth.
Yet the hapless barmaid noted how he clutched his
Dagger – by the sheath, not the hilt, tightly
Beneath the table
As he drank
Making amorous advances, which
Had he not been a ghost
Would’ve made her melt in his embrace where she sat.
As it was – solid though his caresses were,
He whispered sweet nothing into her ear
- Nothing -
In silence, kissing it.

She couldn’t even feel him breathing…


Sarah awoke the next morning to warm breath and gentle nuzzled shoving, accompanied by quiet little vocalizations… and opened her eyes to horse-face! She gasped, startled, then laughed, relaxing again as he shied away from her surprise. “Morning, Cloud – getting tired of lying there, huh boy?” she stroked his mane, sitting up…

Just in time to see why he’d woken her up in the first place: eyes were watching them from the forest just a couple yards away! They were not fearsome like a predator’s; the horse would have acted much more scared if that had been the case. Just a stranger to their little camp… or three or four of them, watching her and her mount intently. From what she could see they were rather small, although they were largely hidden in the deep shadows still cast by the trees in the early morning light.

“Hello?” Sarah called out to them in Thari.

They immediately cleared out fast as foxes. But there had been real intelligence in those dark-green eyes…

Sarah prepared for the day in haste, checking the book’s section on exotic shadow-fauna before embarking again. There was nothing comparable to what she had just seen, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything major either way. Shadow was theoretically infinite; so, too, must be the varieties of its denizens.

As she mounted up, it was difficult to get Cloud to go forward; he eyed the woods in suspicion, backing up a couple paces.

“Something in there that you don’t like, boy? What is it?”

Her mount refused to budge, dead-silent. She sighed.

“I hate to have to go back the way we came,” she started… then remembered that her direction of travel was entirely arbitrary as well: they really could go back and keep going forward so long as she kept shifting! “All right, Cloud, I’m going to trust you this time. How about we go this way instead?” she steered him left, away from the strange primeval forest and its mysterious inhabitants, careful not to view the plateau herself out of her peripheral vision, forcing the forest-fenced landscape to lengthen out in front of them, back into mountains. Cloud snorted and shook his head, unable to make sense of what he was seeing, but Sarah kept him calm and steady as they skirted the trees, climbing steeply again, the greenway morphing into a clear thin path – this one with wagon wheel tracks on either side, more like a regularly traveled dirt road that led up the mountain pass. By midmorning they had run into a bit of threateningly dark cloud cover lowering ominously over the slopes like fog, but Sarah forced herself to remain cheerful, thinking really bright happy-thoughts until the sun came out to vanquish the weather. Peaking by early afternoon, Sarah could now see that they were just on the outskirts of a considerably wide mountain range, with snow-capped peaks further on, difficult climbing as far as the eye could see – in all directions now, a quick glance behind confirmed; the forest had sort of petered out around lunchtime. But this was okay, too: all she had to do now was abbreviate the crossing, add a few more plants, and Eregnor would be on the other-

“Gotcha!”

Cloud whinnied loudly in surprise, dancing a few paces, and Sarah just barely managed to hang onto him, tightly clutching the reins: they were surrounded by diminutive, squatly-built humanoid figures armed with bows, arrows and daggers faster than she could blink! One was perched on a bare rock outcropping not five feet from where she sat, with her in his sights! They were all clad in ancient-looking brown leather and grey wool (both practical and camouflaging, Sarah reasoned), but the one nearest her also wore bits of gold jewelry here and there about his person, especially about his leather belt!

They were dwarves, of course – mountain dwarves in their natural habitat, to be precise – and they looked to be in far better shape than Hoggle had ever been, even if a few of them might’ve been his age or older!

“Yer clever for a human, I’ll grant,” the one she took to be their leader addressed her – the one wearing the gold, “but not clever enough. All the shabby clothing in the world don’t hide a valuable jewel from dwarf-eyes,” his own huge pale-gray ones shone with open greed as he stared holes through her carryall! “Hand it over smooth and free and yous can keep what’s left o’ yer short lifespan – it ain’t worth takin’ needlesslike and humans don’t go for much resale these days, not even for parts. Yer beast, on the other hand,” – he licked his cracked lips as the arc of bowstrings tightened – “is dinner.”

What happened next happened so fast that even Sarah wasn’t quite sure of precisely how it had occurred: all she knew was that the Stone was in her bag and there was no way she could ever reach it before the little monsters shot and killed Cloud right out from beneath her-

- and the next moment they were standing in the midst of a verdant old-growth forest, alone! Cloud reared in fright, trumpeting loudly at the abrupt change; Sarah nearly fell from his back, but gripped both the reins and his mane to stay on as he bolted off blindly into the dark woods with her!

“Whoa! Whoa, boy! Easy there!” she called to him, struggling to regain control of him!

An eerie, long, glassy whistle of a note brought them both up short; the horse stood stock-still, his ears flicked in the direction from which it had come, somewhere off to the left, his rider uneasy about even which way to try to go without any way to determine their current bearings! Especially if they weren’t alone out here…

A second note answered it from the opposite direction, a perfect fourth-step down: it was unmistakably a type of flute, not a birdcall! Cloud let forth another trumpet himself, as if communicating, no longer afraid!

But Sarah was! Who knew who or what could possibly be making that noise, that was assessing their location before closing in! A third note sounded from a different direction – behind them – a minor third up from the previous tone!

Whatever’s going down here, we are not in Amber anymore, she thought, digging out the Stone and donning the heavy necklace without a moment’s hesitation; even uncertain of how it worked precisely, it felt better to have at least this much protection! With any luck, hopefully whoever-it-was wouldn’t be interested in them…

A fourth tone, breathier than the others, came from the newly-pastelized (for Sarah) forest directly before them, another major third-step up. Cloud seemed to say something in horsetalk – which she could now understand!

‘We are here. Please come.’

No! Sarah thought frantically, not sure how to return the communiqué. That’s the last thing we…

The soft clopping footfalls of another horse approached them; the moment she got her first good sighting of the ‘rider’, she forgot to breathe: it was a female centaur! Delicate chestnut-brown fingers held shimmering panpipes to her full, sensuous lips, set below a gently-curving nose and enormous golden-brown eyes, wide and inquisitive. Long, silky dark-brown hair flowed past her bare human breasts all the way down to her… ‘waist’, the beginning of her lower horse-torso. She was lovely beyond comparison. Lowering her instrument, she commenced nickering and making odd syllables at Cloud, as if Sarah wasn’t even there!

‘Are you hurt? Why heard we your fear-call?’

‘Bad things, all around us – then – gone! All-change!’ her mount calmly replied in his own language, as if nothing could possibly be more natural! And Sarah could still understand them!

‘Us? Companion? Where?’ the beautiful creature asked, clearly confused.

‘Here, on me. Stranger – kind, but not smart.’

Sarah rather resented that remark, and from a horse no less! More hoof-steps were coming now, from the other directions! And why in the worlds couldn’t the centauress-

Oh… The Stone – she had wished not to be seen: she was invisible to them! The other three were quietly filing in about them. Tiny glowing, colorless faeries that probably weren’t even there except in her mind flew over and sat down in the low branches, clearly amused by the spectacle, getting a good seat for the show!

The centauress took a wary step back, snorting. ‘Human? With power? Danger?’

‘Human-female. I sense power only now, here, in this place. But no threat.’

‘Then why?’

‘She feared you also were evil. Now she is wary, but less frightened.’

The centauress peered up in the rider’s direction, narrowing her eyes to slits – there was a momentary lightning-like sense of tangible connection! Sarah gasped!

The centauress gave a gorgeous, pearly smile. ‘She understands us, now, in her power, but knows not how to reply,’ she walked right up to Cloud, looking above the empty-seeming saddle. ‘If friend, come forth,’ she uttered imperiously at the thin air where the rider must be sitting. ‘No danger, unless you start it.’

‘She tries now, I think,’ Cloud answered for Sarah, feeling the oddness above him shifting already.

I wish to be seen, she thought, clutching the Stone in both hands, eyes closed, ignoring the irritating pinching sensations of sharp faerie-fingers at the base of her neck. Please make me visible again… Surprised equine snorts and puffs sounded about her and she cautiously opened her eyes.

‘Human rider,’ the centauress sternly acknowledged her, ‘know that you master none in our forest. Welcome for his sake,’ she gestured to Cloud. ‘Get off him – now,’ she boldly took the reins from her. ‘He tires of your baggage, your restraints. Carry what you need yourself; he will not be ridden ever again.’

“But how am I supposed to get to even Eregnor without him, let alone Kashfa?!” Sarah blurted in Thari without thinking as she complied, stiffly dismounting; the communication felt enough like regular talking that she didn’t remember it was still only one-sided! “I’ll never make it in time on foot! I don’t even know where I am!” she nearly started to cry.

The centauress’ demeanor was stone-cold in the face of Sarah’s panicked outburst, but she reached down and placed her immaculate brown right hand upon the human girl’s forehead with an unmistakable look of concentration.

‘Fresh-come from deadly danger – ambush – and now lost, doubly a stranger,’ she quietly uttered at length. ‘Your confusion is good; we do not wish to be found by humans. I understand not most of your speech, but you made noises we associate with two human places, one not far from here.’ She stopped, stepping back, looking up, sniffing. ‘But your way grows darker – flesh eaters in our forest fear the Greater Light.’ She glanced about – first at Cloud, then the other centaurs, and gave a single great equine nod. ‘Remove the weights from him,’ she pointed from Sarah to the horse. ‘You sleep near our herd tonight. Tomorrow you go to… E-REG-NOR,’ she phonetically pronounced the human region in obvious distaste, the syllables thick on her unpracticed, fixed tongue. Holding Cloud steady, cooing over him, the centauress watched as Sarah carefully removed the saddle, blanket and bags, salvaging what she could from the latter; there was no way she could carry it all besides her own parcel – it was too heavy for her, obviously meant to be a lesson of sorts. The bit and bridle followed at the centauress’ hands while Sarah finished, casting both to the forest floor with force like a statement. Free!

Curious as she was, Sarah had worked to politely keep her eyes mostly to herself; she hadn’t even really seen the creature to her left until the centauress addressed him. And she was sufficiently distracted that the dream-faeries vanished on the spot, forgotten.

‘Night-Without-Silver-Light, are you willing to bear the stranger-human back with us?’

‘I so will, Rain-Shining-Bark,’ the centaur answered definitively.

Sarah turned in his direction… and her eyes just about popped out of her head: he was black – not as Shadow-Earth humans speak of ethnicity, but truly ink-black – from finely sculpted nose to swishing tail, long jet hair cascading down the back of his thickly muscular torso, his strong facial features clean, his panpipes hanging on a cord of braided hair about his neck. If it were not for the tauntingly haughty aspect in his deep-brown eyes, Sarah would’ve been lost in them.

He’s black like Sofi, she suddenly thought out-of-the-blue; the incongruent similarity was strangely comforting. Night knelt down before her so that she could mount him more easily; as she did so, he caught her hands in his own long-fingered ones, pulling her far more forward on him than she would’ve thought to ride, wrapping her arms about his flawless human abdomen in an embrace of sorts, a waterfall of silky hair-mane against her front. The emotions Sarah was currently experiencing were a strangely curious mix: trepidation, consternation… and, as much as she was desperately trying not to think about it, blunt animal attraction; she knew she was going to have to think more charitably about Princess Fiona’s private unorthodox tastes in the future!

Rearing as a unit with a high collective whinny, the company tore off through the woods at full-gallop, clearing undergrowth, dodging thickly dense tree-trunks shaped like sinuous dryads, spooking the odd deer, charging home like wild mustangs – of course, Sarah couldn’t see much of it for the thick hair in her face that she kept trying not to inhale or eat! Looking over her shoulder, she saw Cloud keeping up with them, followed by the last two creatures, a thinly-built red-headed roan female and a muscular palomino male that would’ve given Fabio a run for his money! Their expressions were just this side of feral, though… She sighed, burying her face in Night’s sculpted back, smelling his strange musk, hearing an odd noise through his body that she registered as mocking laughter!

‘You are only half-woman to me, human-female,’ he abruptly informed her quite candidly, making her grateful that her beet-red face was already hidden in his midnight tresses!

Before long, other equine sounds along with pipe music greeted their ears in the distance; within minutes they reached a rather large, grassy open area near a downward slope that looked like it might’ve been deliberately cleared at one point in time, facing more imposingly tall mountains in the distance… and the main herd, which Sarah was surprised to find comprised of not only centaurs, but more plain horses! And here I thought I was being weird…

‘Interbreeding causes inability to foal in the young; we do not,’ Night calmly answered her train-of-thought. ‘We aid all who run away from humans.’

And the general animosity toward her own breed was painfully obvious from the angrily incensed shouts and cries they were getting as he approached:

‘Human?!’

‘You bring an enslaver!’

‘Stinking biped!’

‘Half-person!’

‘Murderer!’

‘Get her away from the foals!’

‘Why here, Night?’

Unbelievable abuse was heaped upon Sarah seemingly from all corners for no other reason than her species! She would’ve been angry herself had she not been able to feel the intense pain and suffering that lay behind the impassioned hatred and terror. It made her want to vanish into Night’s mane completely, to crumple into a ball and sob her eyes out…

‘Enough!’ Night-Without-Silver-Light suddenly trumpeted, stamping his front feet, startling Sarah. ‘This human barely knows how to ride a horse-person, and she gives him over to us freely! She rests alone. She leaves at first light by the Winding Path. Any who would harm or pester her during this night, during the long sleep of her kind, will face me.’

Both shamed and humiliated, Sarah clung to Night as he irritatedly stalked out to the edge of the encampment near the drop-off; she now noted that they had sentries posted every fifteen yards around the perimeter, armed with rustic bows and arrows. They had just caught the attention of a grey one.

‘Just for tonight, Mountain-Summit-Stone,’ Night quickly answered the cautious question in his fellow’s dark eyes. ‘She is alien to the humans of this land and their ways, not KASH-FA,’ he enunciated harshly like the word was a curse, kneeling to let her down. Before he could rise again, Sarah caught his strong right hand, placing it on her forehead as Rain-Shining-Bark had done, doing her best to think clearly and distinctly.

I just wanted to let you know I appreciated your standing up for – for defending me – back there, she concentrated hard with her eyes closed. I never meant to cause your people trouble or fear. I wouldn’t be here at all if I wasn’t trying to fix something – a mistake I made – but it’s so complicated I can’t even begin to explain-

‘Then do not,’ he cut her off quietly, ‘and do not eat the flesh I smell in your bag, only the grain-cakes. Be a flesh-eater again when you are gone from this place,’ he warned her, getting up, letting go of her face with an odd side-stroke of his long black fingers, returning back to the herd. She watched him go, as he greeted his own in various ways – a mixture of humanoid and equine behavior – three nubile females following after him with clear ‘interest’…

Sarah self-consciously looked away toward the sunset over the mountains off to the right, carefully sitting down on the soft, sparkling, sweet-smelling clovered loam where she’d been parked, stealthily removing the Dreamstone – and seeing just how dark the day had truly become – stashing it away, suddenly dead-exhausted and terribly hungry. As per Night’s warning, she made a crude light supper of the hardtack and water. Hopefully the herd had a source of water nearby; she’d need a refill by morning.

It was only after she had recovered somewhat that she finally noticed that in spite of the Stone, she had seen the centaurs as they truly were, coloring and all!

They are magical creatures, then, she mused, watching them dance, playing their eerily beautiful panpipes as the waning moon rose over the treeline, their little children cavorting wildly in a circle toward the center, nickering and whinnying, holding hands…


The young king,
Late one night,
On a pantry raid,
Was ambushed
In the service stairwell
By a ghost
With a crossbow
And hatred in
Eyes that should have been
Blue.

The bolt,
Though translucent
Passed clean through
His left shoulder
Producing
Real
Blood,
Causing him to cry out,
“Eric! You filthy sonofabitch! Don’t you even know how to die?!”

As he went to wrest the weapon away
His hands passed through it
Like nothing
And at the sound of
Rushing feet and clanking armor
The former king of Amber
Simply made his exit
Through a wall,
Silently laughing.


Morning came very early the next day as a human hand gently shook Sarah from sleep: totally black, handsome features met her eyes as he softly nickered at her, funny little noises somewhere between equine and human speech tumbling about deeply in his throat. Night had obviously not been kidding when he’d personally assured the community that she would be gone by first-light. But she still hadn’t explained…

“Hang on a second,” she yawned, groggily digging the wrapped Dreamstone out of her carryall (she’d used it as a pillow), slipping it out and putting it on-

Making the day way too sparkly-bright for this time of morning… Slowly sitting up, squinting temporarily, she grabbed his hand, pressing it to her head.

If any of that was really important you’re going to have to repeat it; I’m sorry, but I can only understand you when I’ve got this thing on, she mentally informed him, letting him go; he was seated beside her.

Night’s large, dark eyes widened in sudden comprehension – and of more than what she’d just said – but he uttered not an equine syllable as she staggered off into the trees to do as nature intended; he also had the prudence not to ask anything further about the unknown object as she ate another biscuit before climbing onto his back, positioning the carryall comfortably cross-body.

She suddenly remembered, feeling the contents shift. The oats, she thought with a note of regret.

‘What is the matter?’ Night surprised her – she’d forgotten he could feel her mind in this close of physical contact as well!

She pressed her forehead to his spine, concentrating. I have extra oats in my bag – for Cloud. I think they were meant as a treat. I have no further reason to carry them without him. Would it be alright if I just let him have them, before we leave?

Night snorted. ‘I sense you mean no harm by this, but the act may not be perceived kindly. But good food is good food. We will try,’ he clasped her arms about him, approaching the herd, who were already up and awake. ‘Does the horse-person who was named by humans Cloud will to come forward?’ he addressed them.

There were many irritated noises of dissent and derision, but the crowd parted for the cream-colored stallion to approach.

Sarah let go of Night and quickly dug the larger sack of oats out of her carryall; it was easily enough for a full meal.

‘You who were called in bondage Cloud, would you accept food from your former rider one last time? It will be wasted if you choose not.’

Many non-human variants of ‘Don’t do it!’ filled the air.

‘It is all right – it is a goodbye treat, I know,’ Cloud said simply, looking at Sarah. ‘Goodbye, strange human-female – I never knew your name, and now it does not matter. Do not fear for me – I befriend easily. I have made many here. If you ever see… no, that does not matter anymore. Thank you for bringing me here; my life will be easy now,’ he unabashedly walked up and nuzzled her before turning away. Tears stood in Sarah’s eyes.

‘Acorn-daughter!’ Night neighed imperiously.

A lovely young centauress the color of the nut subserviently approached. Night took the sack from Sarah and hefted it to the girl-mare, who caught it.

‘See that that one gets all of it,’ he pointed to Cloud. ‘It is his by choice. I quickly return.’

And with that he turned and galloped away with Sarah on his back, down the hill and back into the thick, mythic-looking deciduous trees. The early morning filled the lushly fragrant forest with birdsong: ‘Up here! Over here! Yes, here! My plumage shines! I am strong and healthy! Food here! Follow me! Mate me!’ it went on and on and on…

‘You understand the little air-ones also!’ Night exclaimed excitedly – then caught a whiff of Sarah’s fatigue. ‘It tires you to wear that, as it would not the true owner,’ he guessed intuitively.

I know not of this one, but a similar stone tires even the true owner, no matter what, she carefully thought in reply. But it would be rude of me to remove it now.

‘We need not speak; save your strength,’ he answered positively, slowing so that she could safely do what she had to back there, letting go of her arms.

Wait! Before I do, is there drinkable water nearby? My supply has run out.

‘Yes – this way,’ he changed direction, cantering down a gentle slope covered in thick scrub foliage to a large, slow-moving ravine. Sarah dismounted and refilled her canteen, drinking several mouthfuls with her cupped hands straight from the source; Night stooped to lap also, as long as they were there anyway.

Sarah approached him and leaned her forehead against his humanoid flank.

If you need to tell me something from here on out, show me, alright?

He nodded with a teasing frown-smile. His dark eyes watched intently as she lifted the chain up over her head… and the world grew darker for her again, more natural-colored, as she practically sagged in relief where she stood, catching her breath for a moment before putting it away. He helped her onto his back again and they were off.

After everything she had been through in the last couple of days, there was something rather comforting, something inherently humanizing, about just holding someone like this for a long time, as discomfiting as it was that the other half was still rapidly cantering along beneath them like a horse…

Night-Without-Silver-Light just chortled his queer-sounding equine laugh, gripping her arms a little tighter to keep her awake as they plunged headlong through the brush.

Even if Sarah had had any rough idea as to where they had started out, she would have been completely clueless as to where they were by now; not only was the landscape completely unfamiliar, but from many of the directional choices Night had taken she was fairly certain that they were traveling in circles to a certain degree as well, to make good and sure that she could never find her way back to the herd.

The immense unplanned shadow-jump of yesterday that had landed her here still made her wonder: unlike not wanting to be seen by the centaurs and then wanting to be able to know what they were saying while wearing the Dreamstone – which at least made some modicum of sense to her way of thinking – she had been too scared to even think to wish for anything at all when possibly lethal physical violence had seemed imminent, and she hadn’t even been touching the thing… and it had happened anyway! Had the Stone itself autonomously saved them, sensing the peril somehow? It was quite a thought, one that put her in mind of the true Jewel of Judgment. Sarah hadn’t dared to put the Dreamstone up to her eye to discern what manner of Pattern lay within, but she was beginning to suspect that attunement to the original bled down into the copies, and if that was so, then… Question led to question terminating in question: there was no end to them.

Sarah had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she was somewhat surprised when Night-Without-Silver-Light slowed, coming to a halt: they had reached the edge of the forest! She was on her own again. The centaur knelt one more time so she could dismount, rising once she was off… and pantomimed her putting on the Dreamstone.

“Oh! You want to tell me something! Right.”

She quickly did this, squinting against the suddenly bright glare of the sun over the open pastureland ahead of them, turning back to him.

Night’s facial expression was imminently readable without any supernatural mediation at all: it was a rather human look of dubious regard.

‘You ponder many strange and wondrous things, human-female – complicated, as you say. You seem good-natured for your kind, but I know not whether to wish you failure or success in what you seem to desire to do, as far as I can understand it. I am not cruel – I am experienced. I have witnessed catastrophes you cannot hold in your mind, that were started by one well-meaning fool-human.’

Sarah gave a mirthless laugh, stepping up, placing his warm hand on her head.

“You behold the fool,” she said aloud also, in Thari. “I go to redress a grievous wrong I was deceived into committing,” she admitted finally.

Night solemnly nodded, snorting. ‘It is not difficult to imagine,’ he gazed down at the Dreamstone, glinting beautifully in the steady light of mid-morning. ‘I must wish you success, I think, insofar as your plans are not detrimental to our herd. Tell no one of what you have seen here,’ he added sternly.

“I wouldn’t,” Sarah shook her head. “I could never betray you.”

And she knew that if she lived to be a hundred, she would never forget how unbelievably, superhumanly attractive he had been. Never, ever.

Night made a humorous scoffing-sound in his throat – and Sarah almost jumped: she’d been so mentally distracted momentarily that she’d forgotten again!

‘Even were you whole-woman to me, you are too skinny for my harem,’ his dark eyes closed with hers, an odd smile of sorts twisting his full, black lips.

“Forgive me! I didn’t mean – it’s only the similarity! I-”

She forgot to breathe as the centaur leaned down, letting go of her forehead to tilt her chin up to face him from mere inches away!

‘Become sleek and strong, and quickly will you be added to a man’s ’ he uttered throatily in his peculiar language, making her flush down to the neck – then glanced uncertainly down at her necklace again. ‘For your sake, may he be wise.’ Turning her by the shoulders, he pointed out, across the valley. ‘You see signs of humans here: their slave-animals graze freely during the day, but they are taken away at night, by force sometimes. Yet this is not the place you seek. Can you see with your shorter human-sight where I point?’

“I think so – beyond that hill just there?”

‘Yes, but you must seek blue flowers like the shining lights of the night-darkness to come to E-REG-NOR,’ he instructed her. ‘We know of the hidden ways between places, also – shadows you name them. The humans of E-REG-NOR and KASH-FA are not our friends,’ he stated adamantly, ‘but may you find what you need among your own kind. I am finished speaking; take the Stone off. Return to your natural stamina.’

Even at the inevitably slower pace she would be forced to travel now, it was such a relief to know that she was so close, and moving in the right direction, to boot!

‘It is good, to know the way,’ she heard him observe right before the necklace came off again… and she saw just how well he blended into the shadows of the trees. There were no words for the gratitude, the awe that she felt, but she knew he could feel it.

He eyed her a bit archly, down the bridge of his nose, standing up straight and tall again, backing up a pace, then clicked his tongue at her twice, quickly, like one might to get a horse moving, before turning and vanishing back into the forest!

Sarah had to smirk at the light dig – it was probably deserved – as she stepped out into the full sunlight, commencing the long hike across the valley, past the dairy-cows…