Page 59 of Keldori By Daybreak

“How much farther?” Ciarán asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been.” Orla gave the mountain another glance. “Maybe by dawn tomorrow if we’re fast.”

“Show me.” Ciarán slipped off Una’s back to clamber up Orla’s boulder. I followed, half out of a need to make sure Ciarán got up okay and half out of curiosity.

The moorland stretched ahead, but a second lake glinted red in the light of the dying sun far in the distance. Orla pointed towards it.

“A lake?” Ciarán said. “You said it was protected.”

“You can’t see it from here, but there’s a canyon that runs towards the water. The place we’re headed, it’s a sort of dam holding the water back and hidden almost completely underground.”

“And you’re sure there’s Skal?”

“Yes.”

“We need rest,” Iseult protested. She’d already dropped the pack she’d been carrying and was leaned up against a large rock eating dried meat. “We’ve been walking all day. If they were going to follow us, we’d know by now.”

“No, not with night falling soon.” Ciarán shook his head. “We have to keep going.”

“Sure, let’s keep going. You stay on that dog while the rest of us keep walking, some of us with less legs than the others, mind you,” Iseult snarled.

Ciarán slipped off the boulder and staggered as he landed on the ground.

“If Una allows it, you may take a turn.” He caught my eye, then turned away scowling. “Show us the way, Lady Quill.”

Orla stumbled down the boulder and led the way into a rock field.

“So we can’t take a break?” Fana whimpered.

Iseult raised an eyebrow at Ciarán. The muscle in his cowl-covered jaw jumped, but he gestured to the rocky ground.

“Fine. A short one. And then we keep moving.”

However, Fana had only just pulled dried fruit out of her pack for everyone when a haunting howl grated against the falling night. We all froze as we listened to the rotsbane cry.

“He’s making more,” I whispered when the sound subsided.

“I’m sorry, Lady Fireld.” Ciarán helped Fana up. “I know you’re tired. If it makes traveling easier, I can carry Jonquil.”

Fana released Jonquil to Ciarán. The Persian cat was looking bushier than usual with the fur standing on end after the rotsbane’s howl, and I reached to take her.

“That cat likes you better,” I admitted, “but you’re injured.”

“You’re injured too,” Ciarán reminded me, but he relinquished Jonquil into my arms.

“She’s sorry,” I said to him through our mental bond as we followed the others.

“The cat has done nothing wrong. She has nothing to be sorry about.”

“You know I meant Orla.”

“I’ll consider accepting an apology if this shelter of hers is worth it.”

“It will be.”

“It’s going to have to be one hell of a hideout, Blue, to make me forget a rotsbane’s claws in my side.”

The lake disappeared behind us as we wandered farther into the rock field. Moonlight, as well as the light from Iseult’s magick leg, guided our path, casting the rocks and crags in shades of silver as we navigated the rough terrain.