***
Saoven left them the next morning. “May the sun, moon, and stars guide you until we meet again,” he said as he turned his white mount toward the lowlands.
Unmoving, Janir watched him gallop into the trees while Karile chattered about something she wasn’t listening to. Even though Karile’s voice was running in the background, she felt suddenly alone, naked on the hillside. Everything she had come to depend on for safety and protection was gone. She wondered if this was how fledgling birds felt when left on their own for the first time.
Bracing herself to face the enchanter, Janir turned in the direction of Karile and Kalbo. Karile was beside Kalbo on his tiptoes, trying to heft the horse’s saddle onto his withers.
“What are you doing?” Janir demanded.
“Saddling him.”
“Why? We can let him rest for another hour or so. Now get away from my horse.”
Karile grunted as the saddle finally reached its desired altitude. “Because if we’re going to find the Key of Amatahns before those blasted Argetallams, we had better start moving. And I don’t want to carry the saddle, do you?”
“Who said we were going?” Janir demanded, moving to stop him. “Why don’t we just stay here and let people much more qualified than us deal with it, whatever it is?”
“You don’t understand, do you Janir?” Karile sighed and sounded remotely sane for a change. He even took a step back from Kalbo. “By the time Saoven reaches the lowlands, tells the story, assembles a group to go after the Key, the group is ready to move…the Argetallams could have found it a dozen times over. They have a head start on us.”
Karile looked suddenly more serious than she had seen him in the few days of their acquaintance. It was very unnerving.
“Why should I care?” demanded Janir. “You and Saoven kept talking about ‘nearly unlimited power,’ but you never explained yourselves.”
Karile sighed. “Do you remember the story of Amatahns, the great savior of the world?”
Janir blinked at him. “Amatahns the Enchanter?”
“Yes, do you remember it?”
“Of course! Everyone knows the story of the beasts he defeated and the war and so on and so forth,” she shortly replied. The tale had been dismantled and reassembled by so many artists, bards, and poets, it was hard to keep track of them all. One thing she was sure of, though. “There is nothing in the stories about any Key.”
“Not many people know the whole of the story,” explained Karile. “The knowledge of his defeated foes, the enchanter contained in an orb and kept for himself. It was lost to our realms when he sailed across the sea.”
“And the point is?” Janir wasn’t so sure she believed any of this, but Saoven had seemed to trust at least part of it.
“I haven’t told you what he did with the other thing he took from this race,” Karile qualified, impatient at her impatience. “Their magic.” The enchanter paused, probably for dramatic effect.
Janir raised one eyebrow. “What about their magic?”
“He sealed it in a crystal chamber and if anyone can stand inside the chamber, they can absorb the power of an entire race!” Karile was either horrified or enthused, it was hard to tell which.
Janir was still not impressed. “And what does this Key have to do with anything?”
Karile sighed and made a frustrated grunt. “You need the key to open the chamber!”
Instant suspicion came over Janir. “What exactly would you want with this Key if you had it?”
“Hide it from the Argetallams. I would never use it,” he assured her.
“How would you keep it from the fiercest band of warriors ever to walk the earth?” Janir demanded. “You’re one boy and even if you had all the magic in the world, it would be useless against Argetallams. They’re called Invulnerables for a reason.”
The enchanter was quiet for sometime before admitting, “I don’t know.”
Janir huffed and folded her arms across her chest.
“But that’s not important right now. We just need to keep it from them until we can hide it again.”
“No,” was her firm response.
“Come on, Janir,” Karile pleaded.
“No.”
“Please. It’s just outside the province of Ivy Down, not three day’s ride away.”
“Conveniently, the province which happens to border with the Staspin Waste,” Janir muttered to herself.
“Listen.” Karile sounded almost desperate. “I can’t do this alone. I need you, Janir. Terrible things will happen if the Argetallams get this Key first.”
“I want nothing to do with Argetallams,” Janir snapped. “If there really are Invulnerables on the loose, then Saoven will know how to deal with them. We wait until he returns.”
“We’ll be there and gone before they ever arrive,” Karile assured her.
“You said they had a head start.”
“True, but they don’t know where the Key is. I do.”
“How could you possibly know?” Janir marched around to where her bedroll was lying and began lashing it up. If nothing else, perhaps being on the move would keep the enchanter quiet.
Kalbo’s ears twitched. He turned his head in the direction of the woods.
Janir followed his stare, remembering something Armandius had once told her about heeding Kalbo’s reactions. At first she saw nothing, but then she caught the flash of harness and a flicker of motion as a saddled horse moved by.
“Karile…” Janir was lucky that they didn’t have many supplies. She grabbed everything in sight and crammed it haphazardly into the saddlebags.
“What’s wrong?” Karile stared with confusion as she lashed the bags shut and nearly threw them at him.
“Shh!” Janir waved indistinctly as she shoved him in the direction of Kalbo. “Just…”
For once, the enchanter had done something useful. Karile had mostly tacked up Kalbo and Janir just had to tighten a few buckles. She slipped the bridle in place over the stallion’s head, moving with fevered speed.
“Finish packing!” she hissed.
“What’s—” Karile followed her anxious gaze. “Oh, fewmets.” He raced to obey her as the first signs of the riders appeared from the trees. “Bloody Stlavish found us.”
The girl and the enchanter slung the saddlebags up behind the saddle just as the first horsemen emerged from the greenery. By the time they had been spotted, Janir was already vaulting onto the stallion’s back and hauling Karile up after her.
As the riders shouted and made to chase them, Janir froze. Saoven had been wrong, these were not Stlavish at all. It had been years, but she could recognize one when she saw one, could feel that indescribable knowing.
These were Argetallams.
Panic gripped Janir and for a moment she couldn’t think, couldn’t react.
They’d come for her. They were here. After all this time hoping it would never happen, they were here.
“What are you doing?” Karile shrieked. He drove his skinny heels into Kalbo’s sides just as the lead riders took off after them.
Argetallam riders.
Janir recovered enough of her senses to steer Kalbo in the opposite direction. The stallion gave a burst of speed, moving like a bolt of lightning despite carrying an extra rider.
As they galloped through the trees, the thunder of pursuit on their heels, Janir tried to steer Kalbo in the direction Saoven had gone. If they could just get back to him…
But there were at least five Argetallams after them and the warriors closed in, keeping them from doubling back. Abandoning all hope of meeting up with Saoven, Janir dug her heels into Kalbo’s sides and spurred him deeper into the mountains.
Speed was their only chance.