The Demon's Blade by Steven Drake

Author:Steven Drake [Drake, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-06-26T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16: Followed

The day dragged on in the dusty gloom. The uniform red gray walls appeared out of the darkness ahead, and disappeared behind. Here, there were no side passages, nor ruined dwellings, nor any suggestion there ever had been, only mile upon mile of tedious sameness.

The encounter with the gloom crawler had made the Executioner wary, so he watched the tunnel closely for any further surprises. He also watched the horses more closely, as their sharp ears and animal instincts would pick up danger long before he would. At first, there was no sign of anything, but sometime in what must have been the late afternoon, Darien noticed a subtle change in his horse, Cloud. The animal’s ears twitched, and turned backwards as if listening to something far behind them. A while later, Cloud increased his pace, without any prompting from his rider. It seemed something was behind them, but who or what was it? The Executioner quietly cursed himself for setting out so late that day, and pulled Cloud to a stop.

"What is it?" Jerris said. "What are we stopping for?"

"Quiet!" Darien whispered harshly There it was, far behind them, the faint but distinct clip clop of hooves upon the stone path. The sound continued for a minute or two, getting gradually louder, then suddenly stopped.

"Someone may be following us Jerris," Darien whispered. "I heard the sound of a horse's hooves behind us." They waited quietly for several minutes, but the hoof beats did not resume. It has to be a scout, the Executioner reasoned. He wants to follow us, but wants to avoid a confrontation.

"Do you hear it anymore? Should we keep waiting?" Jerris asked. "Maybe we could set up an ambush around the next turn."

"Whoever it is, they are waiting for us to move before they start again. Whatever the reason, they don't want to confront us here," Darien asserted. "Let’s go, but quickly." Sure enough, the sound of the hooves behind them resumed less than half a minute after they had started off again. They brought the horses to a trot, and the sound of the hooves behind matched the quickened pace, but did not overtake them. "Jerris, we’re not too far from the south door. When we’re there, I’ll decide what to do. Be prepared for anything."

Jerris nodded his acknowledgment, and the two half elves continued on. The horses gobbled up the miles at the faster pace, and soon enough, they could see the darkness thinning ahead of them. The door drew near.

A few minutes later, they rounded a bend, and a half moon of light came into view in front of them. The underpass was nearly behind them. It took several minutes to reach the light, which appeared much closer than it actually was, but finally, they stepped out of the mountain tunnel and beheld the Craglands.

The sun was setting in the west, just beginning to dip behind the Silver Mountains, and casting long shadows out across the broken gray Craglands. The underpass

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