The Light in My Dark

THE FIRELORD WAS ILL on our journey to that place. He shook all over, and his long hair was wet with sweat. The beautiful dark sheen was gone from his skin, and he looked almost grey. His eyes were dull, emptied of all passion and power. It grieved my heart to see him this way. Several times he went behind rocks and vomited, and barely had the strength afterwards to climb back on his donkey. I begged him to go back to Qustra, but he said there was a friend he had to see, and he would not be dissuaded from his road.

Thick mist swirled all around, and at times I could see only a step or two ahead. I was afraid of being lost, and only the frequent prayer-stones along our way reassured me. The Firelord was, I thought, beyond knowing where we were. He leaned far forward over his donkey’s neck, and at times I was sure his mind and spirit had flown elsewhere. But after a while he turned and waited for me to come alongside, and said, “We are very near now, Elsha. Remember that the place we go to is secret. We will stay here sixteen days, and then we will travel to the sacred mountain, to conduct the Fire Festival. But swear to me again that our time here will be unspoken of for as long as you live.”

“I swear, lord.”

He went on a short way further, then got off his donkey and began leading it. He turned left, dragging the unwilling beast into a narrow place behind a huge rock. I thought at first he had lost his wits, and was forcing the animal into a place where it would be trapped, but when I followed I saw that the rock concealed a fissure in the cliff.

“Just follow, handmaid,” my lord said calmly. “Don’t be afraid. I know where I am going.”

The crack we entered was narrow and pitch-black. The walls pressed in on either side, close. From far away came the faint hum of firestone power, and a trickling of water. I was at home in the blackness and the rock, but Kallai’s talons tightened on my fist, and I felt his fear.

I walked on, blind, following my lord’s laboured breathing, and the sound of his weary footsteps dragging in the dust ahead of his donkey’s hooves. Suddenly the walls glimmered, and we were out. I stared, dazzled by the sudden light, convinced I was in a dream.

We had come to a place enclosed totally by mountain cliffs, a small interior plain with a high waterfall at one end and a river that vanished into rapids at the base of a cliff. Here there was no mist, no wind. It was like another world.