Abhorsen froze where he was, muscles tensed, and eyes scouring the gloom around them.
'How would the Uliscé police find me here?' he asked the owl, sharply.
'Oh, sorry.' The bird muttered, deeply sarcastic, 'Did I forget to mention their leader? Mm, yes, seems he's something of a necromancer. He can feel us, Abhorsen, and he knows we have her with us.'
Abhorsen looked at Fanar, his stare hard. 'What would they wanted with you?'
Fanar shrugged. 'I... I... don't know. I suppose I did tackle several of their officers. Maybe they thought I was helping you...'
'The point,' Mogget interrupted, 'Is that the necromancer is leading the police to us, and whether we plan to discuss Miss Fanar's significance to the Uliscé police, if its all the same to you, I think we ought to be out of here.'
Abhorsen nodded. 'You will come with me?' he asked Fanar, dark eyes searching her.
Fanar frowned as she looked up at him, and could not deny the feeling of trust she felt emanate from him. She nodded firmly and took his offered hand. He helped her to her feet and, as she looked at him, he flashed her a grin.
'Have you any weapons?' he asked her.
She produced her dagger and lifted her coat to show him the short sword that was buckled to her skirt belt, at her hip.
'Anything charter spelled?' he asked hopefully.
Fanar shook her head, making her black bobbed hair flap in and out of her eyes.
'Alright, never mind, I shouldn't think it will matter for now.'
Swiftly, he crossed to the trunk and donned the item which had attracted her attention before. The dark blue surcoat, emblazoned with hundreds of tiny silver keys. He buttoned it to his throat, and lifted a bandana from the box too. This he restrained his hair with, tying the ends of the head-garment with a flourish before bending over the trunk and pulling out a final item: a scabbarded sword. Fanar could feel the charter magic underneath the silver that encased it, and she longed to draw the weapon out herself and test the blade against the bench she had been sitting on.
Finally, Abhorsen came back to her and lifted up the bandoleer, which he strapped across his chest, diagonally, so the bells hung down from the seven catches that held them in place.
'Time to go,' he whispered, gripping her arm briefly.
Pulling her away from the wall she had had her back to, he traced three symbols, muttering, 'Yjannui'
Fanar blinked as bright charter marks shimmered into being on the wall, sketching a large, human-size oval in the wall. The marks brightened as Abhorsen continued his incantation, and finally spilled over, into the centre of the thing, filling every space, filling it with light that Fanar was obliged to look away from.
When she looked back seconds later, the light had dimmed, but was still glowing, reflecting Abhorsen's troubled, tired eyes.
'Go on,' he motioned. 'Go on through.'
Fanar hesitated, then reached out, and stepped through the oval.
Sharp pain wrenched through her spine and legs and for a moment, making her tense. Her body was wrapped briefly in paralysis, the darkness tight around her, almost suffocating. She gasped, and fell forward, absorbing the impact hard with her knees and hands. They jarred and she rolled forward to relieve the rest of the impact before turning, and looking sharply around, her dark hair swinging across her face. She growled angrily and pulled it away, looking back around. The air was fresher here, sharper, crisper. She was in a tunnel, mainly rock, lit with holes made at regular intervals with a craggy roof that hunched over her so she could tell it would not be possible to stand, only crouch. She swore, looking at her bloody knees. They had scraped along the unforgiving floor of the tunnel. Gingerly, she picked away the grit and turned back to where she had come from. There was nothing there, just the grey rock face.
Fanar looked along the tunnel, and saw it twisted off and away so she could not see where it led to. In the other direction, the tunnel opened out onto a rocky, pebble-strewn beach. The sky was overcast, and the sea swirling turbulent and unpredictable. As she watched, the waves lashed out at the shore, making spray erupt in a wash of white.
Fanar felt a hand grip her shoulder and she gripped it wrist, the reflex sending her attacker over her shoulder – or it would have, if he had been standing up. Instead, she heard an "oof!" as her attacker hit his head on the craggy roof above.
Fanar looked back, triumphant, and gasped.
Abhorsen stood behind her, rubbing his head, grimacing. 'Ouch.' Her commented, as Fanar gabbled her apology.
He smiled, 'Don't worry. I've a thick head, and the bit I rammed into was flat.'
Fanar winced, muttering, 'Sorry,' despite his calm.
Mogget, who was hooting happily at his master's injury fluttered down from his shoulder and glared meaningfully at him, as Abhorsen rubbed his head.
When he caught Mogget's eye, he nodded. 'You have permission, but mind you keep up.'
Mogget fixed his master with a malevolent stare, and turned away.
Fanar looked hopefully into Abhorsen's dark eyes.
'Where now?' she wondered, suddenly feeling the cold. She pulled her stockings higher above the knee and shivered.
'Out.' Abhorsen's eyes were focused on the overcast sky outside and he nodded in that direction. He stumbled forward at a crouch, followed clumsily by Fanar, who couldn't manoeuvre as gracefully as he, held back by the embarrassment of the skirt and the rocks.
Halfway to the opening she remembered Mogget and looked back.
She jumped.
Coming right up behind her, trotted a startling little white man, a sort of albino dwarf, with a long white beard, floury face and the same brilliant emerald eyes of the Mogget-owl.
Fanar looked at him for a moment and her stopping hindered his own movement. As he halted, the tinkling of that same bell sounded, and Fanar glanced at his stout waist. A broad belt encircled his stomach, and, in place of a buckle, sounded that same bell that had jingled on Mogget's owl-formed talon. 'Come along Miss Fanar,' he snapped, hopping between her legs so fast that Fanar squealed and nearly hit her head on the roof of the tunnel.
She glared at the dwarf furiously, too livid to speak.
Mogget turned back with a sly smile. 'Honestly, it was as if I was any other dwarf.' He chuckled. 'Not the servant of Abhorsen.'
Abhorsen looked back briefly, and Fanar blushed and kept moving.
Once out of the tunnel, Fanar straightened and assessed their surroundings. They were in a cove, thickly surrounded by other caves dug into the dark grey cliffs that towered above. The beach was mostly pebbled, and what sand there was looked sludgy and grey, with regular dips acting as rock pools, full of tepid water.
Out here, Fanar could see the ocean was friskier than usual, growling as it drew back, and pouncing with a fresh eruption of spray. As it lashed at Fanar she stifled her squeal and hid her head, shivering.
She tightened her pelt jacket and pulled her skirt down a little, so the cold didn't dare flutter it.
Looking around again, she noticed that the only way to escape the cove would be to go back the way they came, or take to the sea, unless one of the caves disguised a passage to the bluffs above.
'Fanar!' Abhorsen called above the crash of the ocean.
She looked up, to show she'd heard, and turned finally to retrieve her hat from her bag.
Shoving her hair under it, she turned back to Abhorsen.
'How are you at climbing?' he yelled.
Fanar thought. She had climbed before, she remembered. Once or twice school trips had taken her to the capital of Ancelstierre where tutoring for unusual sports took place.
Fanar looked back to the sheer rock faces and gulped.
'Um... not bad.' She replied, unsurely.
'Good.'
Abhorsen made his way over the field of rocks to the sludgy beach, where drizzle whipped into their faces.
The walk across the beach took the better part of fifteen minutes, and by the time they reached the wall of cliff, Fanar's legs were freezing.
She rubbed them hard to stir some feeling, but her numb skin only felt the harshness of numb fingers.
She hurried to where Abhorsen stood, craning his neck to look up.
'I think this is our best bet.' He said, quieter now they were a fair distance from the strike of the waves. Fanar looked up, fear gathering in her chest. She wasn't really afraid of heights. She's simply rather avoid them. The cliff she faced now was well eroded underneath and jutted horribly on top. She bit her lip.
'Abhorsen?'
He turned to her, his eyes warm, and for an instant, her fear evaporated. He wouldn't let her fall.
'Have you climbing equipment?' she asked nervously.
Abhorsen shook his head.
Fanar felt her stomach clench, and she glanced down at her bare legs and skirt.
Abhorsen noticed.
'Here,' he said kindly, dropping his pack onto the ground and rooting through it briefly, he came up with a pair of breeches.
'They'll be too big.' He warned, 'But they're better than that old thing.'
He gestured to her pleated skirt and she blushed.
She took them gratefully. 'Thank-you.'
He rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment, before turning and beginning to trace charter marks in the air next to him.
Fanar turned and slipped behind a jutting crag which would hide her from him while she changed. She stripped down to her underwear and began to re-assess herself for the climb.
Shivering, she laid her clothes on a nearby rock and slipped the breeches on, followed by another vest, over this the shift she had been wearing. The clothes she had discarded in the change she re-packed.
She paused before putting the pelt back on: it would be flimsy and heavy on her shoulders, even without the weight of her pack, and she would tire easily if she kept it.
Sighing, she laid the pelt down and traced a mark for protection on the sleeve.
She didn't know why, she only knew that she needed to do it.
With that done, Fanar traced marks for grip and safety into the soles and toes of her shoes, in her clothes she marked safety and catching, and on her hat, protection.
Lastly, she reached into the charter and withdrew marks for help, safety and grip once more.
Emerging from her changing post, she walked to Abhorsen, whose clothes glowed with his own charter-spell, He smiled at her as she walked to him, and nodded upwards.
Fanar nodded back in agreement.
Together, Abhorsen and Fanar ascended the cliff.
A/N: hey, sorry it took so long to get this little guy up... will be more exciting next time!
WBR