The Elder Blood Chronicles – Book Three(10)

Jala frowned at him and leaned forward once more. The same darkness greeted her. “All I see is darkness, Val. If there is a path there, I’m not seeing it.”

Valor seemed puzzled for a moment, then a look of utter disbelief crossed his face. “By the gods, Jala, you don’t have night vision do you?” he asked, his tone incredulous.

“What?” Jala asked, returning his look of confusion.

“You have been in here for weeks without being able to see at all?” Valor asked, still sounding bewildered. “I think I would have gone insane by now if I couldn’t see what was around us.”

“Wait.” Jala began. She glanced over the edge again then back to him. “You mean you can actually see through this? You have been able to see the entire bloody time?” she asked, her voice rising a bit louder than was safe.

Valor nodded and shook his head at her again. “That’s love. There is no doubt about it, Jala. Not only are you crossing hell for him, you are doing it blindly,” he said in amazement.

“I can see short distances, a few feet or so, and then it gets murky. If that path is really three feet below, I should see it, I think,” Jala replied, a bit defensive. She looked back up at him, her eyes narrowing a bit. “How far can you see?” she asked.

Valor shrugged and motioned a hand to the left of them. “There is a large rock formation over there that has been annoying me since we stopped. It’s a perfect place to hide for ambush so I’ve been keeping an eye on it. That’s about forty feet away, I’d say. A little beyond that it starts getting hazy, like heavy fog I suppose.”

Jala stared in the direction he indicated and nodded slowly. It was all one mass of shadows to her. She couldn’t even see the outline of a rock formation. “Well, I suppose it’s good that one of us has an idea of what’s around us. I’ll admit, I’m jealous, though. I’ve been skittish the entire way because of the blindness. Well partly because of the blindness. I suppose it’s fair to admit a lot of my nervousness stems from the fact that we are in the bloody Darklands. It makes me feel a bit better about myself to understand why you are so calm, though. I feel like less of a bloody coward.”

“Jala you are one of the last people in the world I would consider a coward. Most women I know are afraid to go into their backyard at night. Wisp was formerly the strongest woman I’d ever seen, but I don’t think anything would convince her to walk into hell, no matter what was to be gained,” Valor assured her.

“One might argue that’s insanity, not bravery,” Jala pointed out with a short sigh. Her eyes were roaming the shadowed cliff once again. If she could just get a glimpse of this path maybe her stomach would settle a bit. “Speaking of insanity, you really want to ride down this?” she asked, looking back up at him.

“It can be done. I promise you that. It really only comes down to one thing,” Valor said quietly and watched her.

Jala waited for him to continue, but realized after a few moments he wasn’t going to without her asking. “And that one thing is?”

“Do you really trust me?” Valor asked, one slender silver eyebrow arched in question. He held her gaze; his blue eyes searching her own for any sign of doubt.

“Does my trusting you really apply to my trusting your horse’s agility?” Jala countered, not flinching from the gaze.

“He is Arovanni, Jala. Part of my soul was used in his creation. I know what he can do. To trust me is to trust him,” Valor explained. Moving forward he took her by the arm gently and pulled her back toward the horse. “Here, place your hand over his nose gently. Just rest the palm there against the skin.”

Jala gave him a questioning glance, but allowed him to move her hand to the horse’s nose. Gently she pressed her palm against the flesh and marveled at the warmth beneath her hand. She had expected Valorous to be cold to the touch as his barding was. Instead he felt like a living creature, though she had never seen him eat, drink, or sleep. There was a faint stirring in her mind and she silenced her thoughts with a bit of wonder. She could feel emotions, though she knew they weren’t her own. It was almost like the bond with Finn had been, though not nearly as strong. She had felt the faint brush of the Arovanni’s mind in Goswin when Valor had handed her the reins, but it hadn’t been nearly this defined. She could sense confidence flowing through the link as well as loyalty and compassion. Fainter, there was a flicker that seemed almost too fragile to examine closely – trust. Slowly she pulled her hand back from the horse and let out a slow breath. “All right, Val, we ride,” she said faintly and wondered if he could even hear her words over the hammering of her heart. To her own ears it sounded like battle drums.