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Ren carved at Shal's wound and sucked and spit the poison as fast as he was
able to, but he could see the vein of green pushing its way toward her heart,
and he wept openly as he carried her to the waiting cart, where Sot had
already laid Tarl. Cerulean whinnied and whickered and stamped furiously, and
none but Ren dared to hitch him to the cart, but the moment the harnesses were
se-cure and Ren had clambered aboard, the great horse bolted away and galloped
with a speed no other horse could match.
"Make way! Make way!" Ren shouted at the top of his lungs as they reached the
temple gates.
"Wounded aboard!"
The clerics at the gates hurried to lift the latch as priests in their studies
flocked outside to see what the commotion was about. Cerulean charged through
the gates and straight toward the central temple. He didn't slow until he
reached a circle of priests waiting at the temple stairs.
Ren spoke so rapidly that he jumbled his words, and it was only the clerics'
experience in dealing with dis-traught people that helped them to catch the
words "poi-son" and "bleeding." Two of the brothers held
Ren as the others carried Tarl and Shal inside the temple.
"Our brothers will do everything they can for them. There is nothing more you
can do, ranger. Go, find your peace where you can, and return in the morning."
Ren stared at them numbly, tears still welling in his eyes. "You can't let
them die! If there's anything I
can do ... anything at all ... I'll be ... I'll be at the Laughing Goblin Inn,
or maybe ... maybe at the park, the one by the wizard's tower on that end of
town." Ren pointed ab-sently and walked dejectedly toward the gates.
"Don't forget your horse!" one of the clerics called.
But Ren only muttered, "No. It's hers," and walked on.
Ren didn't remember passing anything between the temple and the park. He
didn't even have any idea how much time had passed. He had been at one place,
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some time ago, and now he was at another. The storm had cleared before Shal
left the rooftop of the Laughing Gob-lin, but the sky was still cloudy, and it
was now pitch dark, the kind of night when only rangers and elves saw well.
Ren walked without hesitation through the annon-woods and into the center of
the park, where a huge evergreen towered into the darkness.
He gathered pinecones till his hands could hold no more and laid them gently
before the tree. Then he piled needles on top of those. Finally, he picked
violets that had folded their flowers for the night and laid them atop the
pile. He faced the tree and spoke softly. "I want desper-ately for my new
friends to live, and
I need somehow, Tempest, to finally accept your death.... You know there's no
one like you. Even Shal, as much as she looks like you, isn't really like you
at all. I'm not... I'm not go-ing to look for your replacement anymore,
Tempest. There isn't one. But you're going to have to forgive me if I go on
now with my life."
Ren clenched his teeth to hold back tears, then tossed the flowers and the
needles and the pinecones, a handful at a time, around the tree. "What is it
they say, Babe 'from the earth to the earth'? You loved trees and the
out-doors, like me, so this is my way of... of..." Ren's voice cracked, and he
stopped until he could speak again. Then he gazed skyward and continued. It
seemed fitting that the nearly full moon had broken through the clouds and was
shining down on the little park. "This is my way of leaving you where you'd
like to be. Okay?"
There was nothing more to say, so Ren simply stood for a while, staring into
the night. After several minutes, his melancholy was interrupted by an
ear-piercing shriek.
Ren made his way stealthily to the edge of the park closest to the fortress
wall. The sounds were
coming from the opposite side of the wall. Ren launched his grappling hook
high into the air. It caught, but when he tugged, it fell back to the ground.
On his second try, the three-pronged hook held firm, and Ren hauled himself
steadily to the top of the fortress wall.
Below, a lone warrior was lashing out furiously at an attacking troll. Two [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]