3 When Darkness Falls.8 by 3 When Darkness Falls.8 Read Free Book Online Page A

normal, and had nothing to do with Demon sorcery; Kellen, raised in a city where Mages had controlled the weather, was dubious, but supposed she must be right. As Redhelwar waited for the Unicorn Knights he had sent to Sentarshadeen to return, the army began to resume its normal activity. As they had planned before the spell of Kindolhinadetil's Mirror, arrangements were made for Vestakia to go down into the cavern to try to communicate with the Crystal Spiders. As they were shy and timid creatures, Kellen went with Vestakia to perform the introduction.
    He hadn't seen her since Cilarnen's arrival in camp, and was alarmed at how tired she looked.
    "You work too hard," he blurted out before he could stop himself. "Are you sure you can do this?"
    "I suppose you'd rather do it yourself," Vestakia shot back. "Keirasti told me how much you both enjoyed the caverns."
    Kellen forced himself to look away. No. He mustn't tell Vestakia not to do something because he was worried about her — any more than he'd tell Keirasti, or Isinwen. Or Idalia.
    Kellen grinned to himself, imagining how much luck he'd have telling Idalia not to do something "for her own good."
    "They're cold and damp and very uncomfortable," he said, forcing a light tone into his voice. "But Redhelwar tells me you won't have to sleep down there. He's established a secondary camp at the cavernmouth, so you'll have all the possible comforts of, ah, camp."
    Without waiting for her reply, he swung into Firareth's saddle. Isinwen assisted Vestakia into her palfrey's saddle — a courtesy only, as by now Vestakia had gotten enough practice to become quite a good rider.
    Kellen's troop rode toward the farther caverns, along the well-marked track made by the supply-wagons that had gone on ahead of them to set up the camp. A light snow was falling, but by now hardly a day passed without some snow, and Kellen barely noticed it.
    When they reached the caverns, Kellen dismounted and chose six of his troop to accompany them into the cavern. Such caution was automatic by now — even though the caverns had been thoroughly cleared of Tainted creatures, there was always the possibility that something might have crept back in.
    Supplying themselves with lanterns — Kellen didn't want to count on his ability to cast Coldfire just yet — they entered the caverns.
    It was a long walk, and one that brought back unpleasant memories for all of them.
    "Not much farther now," Kellen said, when they'd passed through the cavern where the Shadowed Elf village had once stood. Little remained to show what it had once been; the Elves had scoured the place thoroughly in the aftermath of the battle, and even taken down most of the crude stone huts that the Shadowed Elves had constructed.
    Kellen reached the place where he'd last encountered the Crystal Spiders. The cave was so vast that their lanterns gave very little light, and even with their superior night-sight, Kellen doubted that the Elves could see much more than he could.
    "I'm sure they know we're here," he told Vestakia. "But it may take them a little while to show up. We should move away from the others a bit — I think they're sort of shy."
    Vestakia made a stifled sound that might have been a giggle. "I suppose they have every right to be — with odd-looking strangers barging into their home at all hours! Come on, then."
    The two of them walked a few yards away from the others and stood, waiting. Kellen set his lantern down on the cave floor and rested his hand on the pommel of his sword.
    He didn't feel nervous, precisely. He felt some of the same keyed-up energy that he did when he was about to go into battle, but it was an energy without an outlet. There was no battle to fight — not an immediate one, at any rate. And there were far too many problems that had to be solved.
    He'd learned enough since the day he'd ridden out from Sentarshadeen to join the army at Ondoladeshiron to know what most of them were, unfortunately for his