Darkling Rider (Short Story)

Darkling Rider Part 2

Exiting the castle was eerie. People were frozen at their tasks everywhere, and those who had been moving rapidly seemed to be walking as though immersed in deep mud. Even stranger, none seemed to see them; they were no more than shadows flitting across their field of vision, barely seen, quickly forgotten.

Once they reached the road the real work could begin. There was a strange sort of beauty in the shadowed landscape, and a strange sort of joy in the speed they now possessed. When they ran, the countryside flew by like the wind blowing. As long as they stuck to the shadows they moved as though they were wearing legendary seven-league boots, where each step carried them nearly to the horizon. It felt, Zial thought, like flying might. Khaya and Sadiki liked it too; Zial could feel Khaya's joy in his mind, and it was fierce. By this time tomorrow, they might be utterly destroyed, but for now, there was wind on their faces and a straight, smooth road ahead, and there was nothing to do but run into the wind and feel it blow across their bodies.

It was two hours past midnight that they had their first encounter. The shadowed not-quite-air seemed to thicken and chill around them and there was an unearthly keening. Zial recognized it from the warnings he had been given, and with a start he jerked the three of them out of the shadow they were traveling in. They stood, gasping with the sudden labor of breathing in and out again, in a small pool of torchlight outside an inn. At that, they had been fortunate to find a place lit at all, at this hour – although anyone attempting to stay in their homes anywhere near the border might find comfort in a light burning all night long.

Outside the circle of torchlight the moon, nearing its fullest, cast harsh but colorless shadows. They stretched from trees and hills, along the ground toward the horizon – and they moved. One stretch of shadow billowed and bulged, the knot inside it moving back, and then forth, circling almost slowly, as though it was looking for something. Looking for them. Zial held his breath, fearing discovery, but before he could move the bulge darted east, out of sight towards the border as fast as thought.

He let his breath out heavily, his stomach doing flip-flops at their close encounter. “How is Sadiki holding up?” he asked, patting Khaya's neck in a gesture meant as much to comfort himself as his mount.

He does well, Khaya said, her fondness for him coloring her mental tone.

The little colt frolicked a bit and took advantage of their pause to head over to his mother to nurse. It was incredible that he was not exhausted by their breakneck pace – but when Zial examined himself, he was startled to realize that he was not as fatigued as he would have expected, either. It was as though the time they spent in the Shadows did not require anything from their physical bodies. He wondered darkly where the energy they used had come from, then.

“Well, what do we do now? Dare we go back in? We will make the best time that way.”

Khaya flicked her tail at insects that didn't seem to care that she had spent the better part of the night on a shadowed plane. If we have actually encountered one this early, I dislike our chances of making it to the heart of the Darkling Wood during the night. We may have speed, but whatever speed we posses, they have in equal measure. I think that given the importance of our task, we would be better served by caution.

Zial nodded; she had only confirmed his own feelings, after all. “The question is, where are we?”

Not more than one day's ride from the border, she answered promptly. If we leave early to mid morning we will cross into the Wood before the light is gone.

He suddenly imagined himself entering the Darkling Wood at sunset, surrounded by the slowly gathering shadows that had once been his brothers as the last rays of the sun were extinguished by the night, and he shuddered. “Very well. We'll get a few hours of sleep here.” Zial stepped down from the saddle, and the three of them headed to the stables at the side of the inn to see about a warm place to rest.