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.The leader of the Libera Dramach, the head of the Red Order, and the girl on which all their endeavours rested.It was risky for them to venture out of the Fold together, but Cailin insisted on coming and Zaelis could not let his adopted daughter face this trial without his support.Guilt lay heavy on his heart, and the least he could do was walk with her as far as he could.Cailin had been furious when Zaelis had told her what he had done.Though he had implied to Lucia that he and Cailin were in agreement about asking her to go to Alskain Mar, it had in reality been his idea entirely.Cailin was in violent opposition, and not afraid to tell him so.She had faced him at his house, amid the quiet, cosy surroundings of his study.‘This is idiocy, Zaelis!’ she had cried, a tower of black anger.‘You know what happened to her last time! Now you would send her up against a spirit unfathomably stronger! What possessed you?’‘Do you think I made my decision lightly?’ Zaelis retorted.‘Do you think I enjoy the idea of sending my daughter into the lair of that thing? Necessity forces my hand, Cailin!’‘There is nothing so necessary as to risk the life of that girl.She is the lynchpin of everything we have striven for.’‘We will lose everything we have striven for if the Weavers find the Fold,’ Zaelis said, stalking agitatedly around the room.The raised voices seemed to discomfit the still air.Lanterns cast warm shadows across the hardwood floor.‘It is easy for you to judge: you have the Red Order.You can disappear in a day, go into hiding, leave all of this behind.But I have a responsibility to what I have started! Every man and woman in this town is here because of what I created; even those who are not of the Libera Dramach have come because of the ideals that we represent.’ He dropped his eyes.‘And they look to me as their leader.’‘The day will come when they look to Lucia as their leader, Zaelis,’ Cailin said.‘Was that not the plan? How, then, can you dare risk her this way?’ She paused, then added a final barb.‘Quite aside from the fact that she is, as you say, your own daughter.’Zaelis’s bearded jaw tightened in pain.‘I risk her because I have to,’ he said quietly.‘Wait for the scouts to get back,’ Cailin advised.‘You may be worrying needlessly.’‘It’s not good enough,’ he said.‘No matter what they find, the fact remains that the Weavers are in the Fault.They could have been there for years, don’t you see? It is only because Nomoru is so good at what she does that she even noticed the Weavers’ barrier.How many of our scouts have passed through that way and not even realised that they had been misdirected?’ He looked up accusingly at Cailin.‘It was you that told me how those barriers worked.’Cailin tilted her head.The raven feathers on her ruff stirred slightly.‘You are correct.The nature of the barriers are subtle enough so that most minds are fooled into thinking that they have got themselves lost.’‘Then what else might the Weavers have under our very noses?’ Zaelis asked.‘We only found this one through blind luck.’ He threw up his calloused hands in exasperation.‘I have been suddenly and shockingly faced with the fact that we are all but defenceless against the very enemy we have been fighting against.We have relied on hiding from them.But now I realise that they will find us, whether by accident or design, sooner or later.They may already have found us.We have to know what we are up against; and only the spirits can tell us that.’‘Are you sure, Zaelis?’ Cailin asked.‘What do you know of spirits?’‘I know what Lucia tells me,’ he said.‘And she believes it is worth trying.’Cailin gave him a level gaze.‘Of course she does.She would do anything you asked of her.Even if it killed her.’‘Gods, Cailin, don’t make this worse for me than it is!’ he cried.‘I have made my choice.We are going to Alskain Mar.’Cailin had not argued further, but as she was leaving she had paused at the threshold of the room and looked back at him.‘What was the purpose of all this in the beginning? What did you do this for? You created the Libera Dramach out of nothing.One man inspired all of that.But who inspired you?’Zaelis did not reply.He knew it was a leading question, but he did not wish to be led.‘Which is more important to you now?’ Cailin had asked softly.‘The girl, or the secret army you lead? Lucia, or the Libera Dramach?’The memories echoed bitterly in Zaelis’s thoughts as the company picked its way through the brightening dawn towards the ruined shrine.They had travelled overnight from the Fold for the sake of stealth.The going had been slow, as they had been forced to accommodate Zaelis’s limp, and Lucia – who had never in her life had to walk on a journey of more than a few miles at a time – became exhausted quickly.The clouds that troubled Kaiku far away had not reached this far east, and they had the light of Iridima to guide them through the plunging terrain of the Fault.As the first signs of day approached, they had come to a wide, circular depression in the land, a mile or more in diameter.It lay on a long, flat hilltop, thick with dewy grass and shrubs and small, thin trees [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]