I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.
Edited 1/30/22 - all chapters are getting a overhaul. Things might not match until this process is complete

Enjoy,


Journey

Part 4

It was as if Selena had just singled the monsters of their whereabouts, and by doing so, signed the warrants of their deaths. Perhaps so, if the Ra'zac had not already known their location. She backed away from the entrance as she watched the arrow sail from the shallow opening and into the dark air, its tip glowing bright like a flare. The flaming arrow hit the brush of the wood, setting its dead limbs crackling and spurting as fire quickly took it over. And if they had not known, well, they certain knew now, she thought, this blaze is more than efficient at giving us away.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw the man seated beside her give a slight nod, and silently she began to move, crawling over the deadened coals and past him to the bag. She began packing what they needed as quickly as she could, cursing herself for not thinking to do this beforehand- it was a waste of precious moments to have to pack after setting ablaze the distraction.

"The spare horses need to be released," Brom hissed from somewhere behind her. "It pains me to say it but we will be faster without them."

Selena nodded, pulling out the cooking pot from within the food bag. "Where's the egg?"

"In a bag with that instrument. It seemed like a good place as any to hide it." His voice was flat and orderly, now like a commander on the battlefield. "There is a swift river a third of a mile east of here, at the base of a cliff. Should anything happen, we should be able to lose them there by swimming under the current. If they catch you, kill them. They have a weak spot, here." His fingers trailing lightly under her neck. She shifted under his touch, moving away. "You ready?"

"No," she muttered, shouldering her packs, "but let's go."

It was like an old practice; Brom placed his hand lightly on hers pointing towards her sword, silently telling her to be ready for a fight, before shuffling out the hallow. She scoffed at him and followed, the burlap sack bouncing across her back. We are equal, Brom had once told her. He may have spent more years fighting, but she had been in the midst of just as many battles. They were the same in so many ways, and that was perhaps why they worked so well together.

Selena wondered as she often had when she was younger, that if fate had been different and the Riders hadn't have fallen whether they still would have met on different terms, kinder ones. How different would their story be then? She shook her head, chasing the thought away. Wondering about such things was worthless- they were never to be no matter how many she wished for it.

Selena squinted into the night, trying to see past the huge winged shadows from the fire. Its heat burned her face even from the distance. To her right the horses could be whinnying and scuttling and stomping their hoofs against the ground in fear. She could hear them better than she could see them, having made the mistake of looking at the blazing fire and now being blinded from its glare. She ducked her head she walked blindly towards the horses, cursing the same noise that led her toward them. If she could hear surely them, surely the Ra'zac could as well.

As she reached Arvid and placed her hand against his golden flank, she muttered a calming spell. It worked almost instantly, the horse stilled and his ears relaxed forward, as he allowed her set the baggage down beside him as she went about saddling him. After she finished tying the bags, she made her way over to Snowfire, patting Starshine on the snout as she walked past. She kicked aside the blankets from Brom's saddle, as she reached out her mind and sought the Ra'zac in the shadowy world. They were easy to find; wavering in the blankness, strange twisting lights exactly where they were before. They seemed to her the very thing of unlife, of creatures neither died nor alive but caught in the tormenting void between, condemned to envy and hate everything that took joy in existence…

At last she heard something, but so slight she hardly knew if it was the wind. The slightest sound of slow flapping whispered through the night. Wings from a creature that she could only imagine, taloned and heavy and completely without feathers, and then a long ticking click. Something hard scuffled through the grass, coming closer and closer. Instinctively she looked up, straining her eyes, her hand going for her bow. The saddle she had been supporting fell to the ground forgotten.

"They're close," stated Brom, dropping the last of the bags at her feet. He moved beside her and after picking up the saddle he began to finish strapping Snowfire.

Selena frowned. "I do not believe that fire will hold them off for long."

Brom nodded grimly and picked up his packs. "Be ready for anything."

"I am," she stated climbing onto Arvid's back.

Brom tied off the last of the packs and lifted himself onto Snowfire. "Let's go," he said as he steadied himself and then commanded his horse forward, slashing the blade of his sword through the ties that held Starshine and Cadoc. He muttered something low under his breath and then the horses took off in a fury, kicking up clouds of dust and whinnying into the darkness. He turned around to look at her and then nodded as she jumped onto Arvid's back.

Not a moment later they took off onto the night toward the trail they both knew was there, or at least they tried to. Even with Brom's sharpened vision leading them, the brush and stone and trees proved a hindrance. Not long after they set down the path that something shifted in the darkness. A dark, misshaped shadow fragmented the shifting light of the fire. Selena pulled a knife from her belt and tipped the flagon over it. Then as she turned around, she thrust it at the creature with all her might, muttering a single spell under her breath. Selena supposed it hit true because the creature wheeled away and there was a loud thump as it crashed into a tree. The tree shuttered, its leaves whishing in the air before crushing the creature. The tree fell to the ground with an earth shuttering crash.

Turning away, she wordlessly urged on Lanorgrim. She doubted the beast would be down for long, and when it did get up she did not wish to be anywhere near it.

Suddenly a cold chill ran down her spine causing her to shiver, as the air shifted. Selena huffed and lounged forward as a sharp gust of wind cut above her. The chestnut horse let out a panicked a squeal, her ears flat to his head and reared- knocking her from his back. She tumbled onto the path, and felt her body jolt again into the air before hitting the rocks a second time. Dazed she lay, gasping for air that would not come, as a large, beak-faced creature leapt out of nowhere. It stood over her, a wicked blade in its hands as she lay there, watching, though not completely comprehending what it was that she was seeing, as the light flickered off the blade the Ra'zac was rising higher into the air.

"Don't kill it," hissed a voice as light as air from somewhere in the distance. It sounded pained. "The King wantsss them alive!"

As the words were spoken, a blade slashed down through the darkness viciously towards the Ra'zac over her like a hatchet. With a hiss the creature swirled around and lifted its hooked blade, colliding with Brom's with a reverberating cling! The Ra'zac turned away, forgetting her as Brom swung a blade at its head. She closed her eyes, taking deep clearing breathes. She was aware of Brom to her right, slashing and hewing, beset by the creature.

Slowly as her head cleared, Selena sat up and reached for her sword. Her throat stung, and a sickly sweet smell she had not notice before faded from the air. She looked through the darkness for the other Ra'zac but not seeing him she bolted towards Brom. He and the Ra'zac were in a vicious combat, but neither of them had yet gained the upper. Brom was knocked head over heels by the force of a sword stroke, but he sprang back to his feet like an acrobat. His right arm was bleeding, and the Ra'zac was unscratched.

An earsplitting screech cut through the night, with the sound of ripping and tearing as the wood from the fallen tree was torn apart. Something was trying to free the other beast trapped beneath its weight.

The Ra'zac was fighting him back, step by step, toward the fiery wall. In the flickering light she saw him almost disarm the Ra'zac which righted itself, spring back, and slash its blade into Brom. It made a crackling sound like a laugh, as Brom fell forward, gripping his side with both hands. His sword lay forgotten at his feet. The Ra'zac raised its blade, and as it did, Selena reached toward her belt, pulling to small knives which she threw at it. The daggers hit the Ra'zac at the base of its neck, and it froze, swaying slightly, before turning itself toward her. It clicked its beak angrily as if cursing her, as it pulled the knives from its hard flesh. As it tossed the knives aside, Brom shakenly stood up and swung his sword at the creature. The Ra'zac's arm severed the same moment its head toppled to the ground. Brom, breathing heavily, and fell heavily onto his knees, growling out curses profusely as he looked towards her.

A crashed sounded from where the tree had fallen. Selena resisted the urge to look towards the sound as she ran towards Brom. She fell onto her knees beside him and studied his pale face. "You look about as bad as feel," said Brom hoarsely.

"As long as I'm the better looking one." Her words came automatically and without thought. "Let me see your wounds."

Brom let out a breathy laugh and slowly struggled to his feet, his hands clenching his side. "Stop worrying and find the horses. Do not give me that look, we need to leave. Now. Before they figure out what happened," he said, patting her shoulder. "I'll be fine."

Selena gave him a doubtful look, and reached out her mind for the horses. She found them without much trouble, and called them forth. "The horses are coming," she said. "You should let me look at your wounds, Brom, they look serious."

"You took a nasty whack to your head. It's bleeding quite a lot," the man growled, "and you don't see me bellyaching over that. I'll be fine, I promise. Worry about me when there's a chance we won't die in a few minutes."

Selena reached her hand towards her head and found that it was slick with blood and tender. As she found the wound, she felt like she was spinning, and pulled her hand way quickly. She shrugged. She had been through worse. Slowly she stood on unsteady feet and looked out for the horses, calling out to them again with her mind. They came within moments, though rather jittery and with ears flat against their skull. After helping Brom onto Snowfire, she struggled onto her own horse, and wordlessly they urged the horses into a gallop, leaving, hopefully the two injured beasts and the remaining living Ra'zac behind.

Dawn broke the cold night in a haze of pale grey. The earth lay silent and still in the early hours that the sun remained hidden behind morning cloud, until slowly as the pearly dimness faded and gradually the world filled with color as the sun broke through the clouds, wildlife began to awaken and chatter. The squats and squabbles from the birdsong were enough to startle Selena to a stop. She pulled harshly on Arvid's reigns and peered around, looking, though it seemed as if she peering through fogged glass, for the first at where exactly they were for the first time in hours. Silently she prayed that she hadn't fallen asleep, she had no memory of riding through the leafy cave behind thim. "That's far enough, Brom," she called out, rubbing her head. The man turned his head to leer at her over his shoulder, giving no signs of stopping anywhere, anytime soon. She rubbed her head again, starching slightly at the dried blood. "We have gone more than far enough without looking at your injuries."

The man turned his head away. "I'm fine," he said.

Selena sighed and instantly wished she had not. "We're covered in blood," she said breathlessly, "and people could very well be traveling these trails."

Brom scoffed. "No one travels through this area."

Closing her eyes, Selena took a deep breath to steady herself. She was very tired and wished more than anything for a rest even if it were for a short time. Looking again at Brom's hutched form, she saw the dried blood clinging to his boots and trousers and the grey of his skin, and called him again to a halt. "I need to rest," she told him steely. "You may be able to go day in and out with no break but I cannot. I must rest, Brom, if for only a short time."

The man nodded, and with her help slide from the horse's back and lay on a small patch of grass. He stared at her for a short moment before he closed his eyes. "If you want to heal me go on ahead. I know it's the only reason you wanted to stop," he told her. Without a word of agreement, Selena sorted through her bags and after pulling out a bag of finely crushed herbs she poured as much as she dared into a flagon and brought it to him. He looked at it and shook his head but grabbed out of her grasp nonetheless and drank deeply. After he had his fill he closed his eyes once more. She pulled off her jerkin and lay it under his head, and as she did he opened an eye long enough to see what she was doing before closing it again. "It looks worse than what it is," he mumbled as she peeled away his long shirt. "The blade didn't hit anything vital, and it wasn't poisoned either. I'd likely be died by now, or raging with fever, if it were. It's a clean wound. I'll live."

Though the blade did not go deep enough into his side to hit anything that would kill him it did go deep, and after a moment of prodding the split, bloodied skin, she lay her hands gently onto of the wound. He cringed beneath her but said nothing. Moving her fingers so that they did not go into the laceration, she began to murmur spelling of healing and to ward off infection, and as she did a radiance of colored light gathered, glowing intensely.

She did not feel the crushing exhaustion until she finished and looked down at the wound. With a frown, she ran her fingers beside the angry gash. In the least it stopped bleeding when the skin was moved. As she studied the wound she wondered briefly how he had kept riding for so many hours, unless Brom had taken the time out to mutter a spell he should have bled to death.

"It feels better," he muttered.

Selena's frown deepened. "It certainly doesn't look any better."

Brom placed his hand over hers though his remained closed. "You worry too much," he said slowly, his voice thick.

Selena watched him as he fell into a slumber. As his breathing evened out, she pulled her hand away from his grip and set it in her lap. "You don't worry enough," she said before turning her gaze to the woodland about her.