Darkburn Book 4: The Haunt of Terns
by Tayin Machrie
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The Riders of the Vonn are on the march again behind their chief, Huldarion. He has picked a route across an ancient and mysterious land, towards the Place of Terns. But the Riders' steps are dogged by Kelvha's mighty army; and the journey south brings strange hazards and wonders - a city of giant stones, a hidden tower, and a darkburn more terrible than any they have yet encountered.
Excerpt:
Tamu had the sense of his surroundings shifting. He glanced round in alarm. What was happening? There was no unusual noise, no sudden movement, no attack of stonemen; nothing at all to cause nervousness. Yet something had just changed.
It took him another minute – during which Leor sat on his horse with closed eyes – to work out what it was. The change was in the sky: or rather, in those heavy rolls of cloud which stretched from bleak horizon to horizon.
They were moving across the mountain tops far to his left; not swiftly, but enough to be already blunting those sharp teeth in a dull foggy film. Twenty seconds later, the teeth could not be seen at all.
Bewildered, Tamu looked ahead, past all the carts and Riders. He saw the clouds there too begin to gather, to roil themselves up – slowly at first but with increasing speed – to form great heaving clumps which merged into one cloud: one long, low, heavy, reddish, opaque cloud that looked as dense as earth. The Riders were murmuring, pointing at the sky and commenting on this curious weather. Many hurriedly shook out cloaks from their packs and donned them, in expectation of hail or thunderous rain.
None fell. The cloud – no longer plural, but a growing, single, massive, sky-wide thing – was gradually descending, as if some dark grey-brownish roof were lowering itself towards the plain, above the marching army. Beneath it was increasing shadow.
Tamu felt a sudden panic lest the cloud should come right down upon the Riders like a smothering blanket, to totally conceal them – blind them – or consume them.
“Leor!” he cried out. “Open your eyes, Leor!”
The wizard’s eyes flew open. He looked startled at the sight of the endless bank of cloud sinking inexorably earthwards.
“Was that me?” he breathed. “Did I do that?”
Tamu did not answer. In fearful wonder he watched the cloud continue to descend. He could no longer see the mountains. They had been completely swallowed up.
Ahead of him the long vista of the plain was becoming flattened, its sky turning to a low shadowed roof. The cloud pressed down and down, until Tamu felt that he would only have to raise his hand to touch it. He imagined that it would feel as clammy and as cold as clay.
He noticed others tentatively doing just that, putting up their hands: and realised that the roof of cloud was in fact some twenty feet or so above the ground. But even twenty feet felt far too close. How much further would the cloud descend?
Instinctively Tamu flinched, cowering on his horse, which snorted in distaste but did not seem to be afflicted with the same fear that assailed him. He dared not look up any longer in case his gaze pulled down the cloud around him like a curtain, to envelop him entirely.
“Well,” said Leor’s voice, sounding a little ragged: an uncertain mixture of triumph and shock. “The stonemen certainly won’t be spying on us now!”
Tamu risked a glance upwards. There loomed the massive cloud above him, no longer in descent – but low, so low and heavy that it seemed to push him down. The long line of the wondering Vonn rode on beneath its rust-brown roof, as if riding into the mouth of a vast dim tunnel that led deep underground.
