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The two of them sidestepped across the room as the beast whirled to attack again. Zedd tried different elements of magic while he pulled Adie along with him. She ignored the danger as she poured the rest of the sorcerer's sand into her hand. When the skrin made another silent roar, she flung the sand with a foreign incantation. The blast of air from the roar died as she spoke the words. The skrin seemed to inhale, taking in the sparkling white sand. The jaws snapped closed as the head drew back.
"That be all I have," she said. "I hope it be enough."
The skrin shook its head, then spat out the sand in a cloud of sparkles. It came for them again, but when he tugged on her sleeve she yanked her arm away. Zedd tried sending logs and chairs flying into the bone beast, trying to distract it while she scurried around behind it. They simply bounced off.
Stabbing a hand into a pocket, he brought out a handful of sparkling dust of his own. With a quick flick, he sent it into the center of the bone collection standing before him. It had no more effect than had Adie's sorcerer's sand. Nothing he could do seemed to be much of a distraction and it soon turned its attention to Adie. She was snatching an ancient bone from the wall. Feathers dangled from one end, strings of red and yellow beads from the other.
Zedd grabbed a bone arm, but the beast flung him away.
As the skrin reeled to her, she shook the bone at the thing, casting spells in her own tongue. The skrin snapped at her. She yanked her hand back just in time to save it, but not the bone talisman. It was splintered in half.
That was it. He had no idea how to fight the thing, and Adie wasn't having any success. He dove under the head toward her, rolling to his feet.
"Come on! We have to get out of here!"
"I can't leave. There be things of great value here."
"Grab what you can, we're leaving."
"Get the round bone I showed you."
Zedd tried to dodge and lunge toward the corner, but the skrin snapped and swept talon-tipped claws at him. He fought back with blasts of every kind of magic he had. Before he realized it, he was losing ground, and had nowhere to retreat.
"Adie, we have to get out now!"
"We cannot leave that bone! It be important for the veil!"
She ran for the corner. Zedd grabbed for her but missed. The skrin almost did, too. It caught her with a claw, ripping a gash down her arm. She cried out as she was flung against the wall, rebounding to sprawl face down on the floor. More bones crashed down around her.
Zedd caught a handful of the hem of her robe, dragging her back as talons raked the wall, just missing his head. Adie clawed at the floor, trying to get away from him, to get to the round bone in the corner.
The skrin reared back with a silent roar. The ceiling ripped open as the beast stood to its full height. Huge chunks and splinters of wood rained down. Claws raked wildly, tearing the wood of the walls. Fangs ripped at the roof. Zedd pulled Adie toward the door as she fought him.
"There be things here I must take! Important things! It has taken me a lifetime to find them!"
"There's no time, Adie! We can't save them now!"
She tore away from his grasp, lunging toward the bone talismans on the wall. The skrin went for her. Zedd used magic to yank her back. He grabbed her in both arms and fell backward with her through the doorway just as a claw splintered it.
They rolled to their feet. Zedd scrambled into a run, pulling her along as she fought him. She tried using magic on him, but he shielded against it. The night air was frigid. Clouds of their breath streamed away with the cold wind as they both ran and fought each other.
Adie wailed like a mother watching her child being slaughtered. Her arms, one soaked with blood, stretched toward the house. "Please! My things! I must not leave them! You do not understand! They be important magic!"
The skrin tore at the walls to get out, to get at the two of them.
"Adie!" He pulled her face close to his. "They are no good to you dead. We will come back for them, after we get away from that thing."
Her chest heaved. Tears welled up in her eyes. "Please, Zedd. Please, my bones. You don't understand. They be important. They have magic. They may help us to close the veil. If they fall into the wrong hands..."
Zedd whistled for the horse. He was moving again, pulling her along with him. She protested every step of the way.
"Zedd, Please! Don't do this! Don't leave them!"
"Adie! If we die, we can't help anyone!"
The horse galloped up, skidding to a stop. Her wide eyes rolled in near panic as she saw the thing pulling itself through the walls of the house, splintering and snapping boards and beams. She gave a frightened scream, but held her ground as Zedd gripped her mane and threw himself on her back, hauling Adie up behind.
"Go! Fly like the wind, girl!"
Hooves flung chunks of dirt and moss high into the air as the horse leapt out, fangs snapping at her flanks. Zedd crouched forward, Adie clutching him around the waist as they galloped into the darkness. The skrin wasn't ten strides behind, and looked to be as fast as the horse. At least it wasn't faster. Zedd could hear the teeth snapping. The horse squealed when they did, stretching to run with everything she had. He wondered who could run the longest, the horse, or the skrin, and he was afraid he knew the answer.
24
Richard's eyes opened. "I think someone is coming."
Sister Verna was sitting on the other side of the small fire, writing in the little book she kept tucked behind her belt. She looked up from under her eyebrows. "You have touched your Han, yes?"
"No," he admitted. His legs ached. He must have been sitting without moving for at least an hour. "But I'm telling you, I think someone is coming."
They did this every night, and it was no different this time. He would sit and picture the sword, on a blank background, and try to reach that place within himself that she said was there, but he could not find, while she watched him, or wrote in her little book, or touched her own Han. He had not visualized the sword on a black square with a white border since the first night. He had no desire to chance revisiting that nightmare.
"I am beginning to think I am not able to touch my Han. I am trying my best, but it just isn't working."
She drew the book close to her face in the moonlight and resumed writing. "I have told you before, Richard, it is something that takes time. You have not yet begun to have had enough practice. Do not be discouraged. It comes when it comes."
"Sister Verna, I'm telling you, someone is coming."
She kept writing. "And if you are not able to touch your Han, Richard, how would you know this? Hmm?"
"I don't know." He raked his fingers through his hair. "I've spent a lot of time alone in the woods. Sometimes I can just feel when someone is near. Don't you ever know when someone is near? Haven't you ever felt someone's eyes on you?"
"Only with the aid of my Han," she said as she wrote.
He watched as firelight flickered across her dispassionate face. "Sister Verna, you said we were in dangerous lands. I am telling you, someone is coming."
She leafed back through the book, squinting as she read in the dim light. "And how long have you known this, Richard?"
"I told you as soon as I had the feeling, just a moment ago."
She lowered the book to her lap and looked up. "But you say you did not touch your Han? You felt nothing within yourself? You felt no power? Saw no light? Did not sense the Creator?" Her eyes narrowed. "You had better not be lying to me, Richard. You had better never lie to me about touching your Han."
"Sister Verna, you're not listening! Someone is coming!"
She closed the book. "Richard, I have know since you began your practice that someone approaches."
He stared at her in surprise. "Then why are we just sitting here?"
"We are not just sitting here. You are practicing reaching your Han, and I am tending to my business."
"Why haven't you said anything? You told me this land is dangerous."
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sp; Sister Verna sighed and began tucking her book back behind her wide belt. "Because they were still some distance off. There was nothing else for us to do but to continue. You need the practice. You must keep trying until you are able to touch your Han." She shook her head with resignation. "But I suppose you are too agitated now to continue. They are still ten or fifteen minutes away; we may as well begin packing our things."
"Why now? Why didn't we leave as soon as you sensed them?"
"Because we had been spotted. Once we have been discovered, there is no way to escape these people. This is their land; we would not be able outrun them. It is probably a sentinel who has found us."
"Then why do you want to pack to leave now?"
