City of Jade Read Online Free

within a ring of Kandrawood she met the oracle Dodona, and he took her spirit within the pellucid stone itself. Dodona showed her many things, and told her that all shapes were possible within the crystal. That was when Faeril had said she had always wanted to fly like a falcon, and of a sudden she shifted to the form of that bird, again nearly to her doom. But Dodona rescued her from permanently becoming a thing wild. And when Faeril finally returned to herself, the incised form of a falcon lay inside the crystal clear.
     
     
    Upon her return to Arden Vale, Faeril mounted the crystal on a platinum chain and gave it to Bair as a birth gift.
     
     
    On his quest with Aravan to find the yellow-eyed murderer Ydral, Bair had worn the crystal into the Jangdi Mountains, where the Guardian and the Phael and Bair, working in concert with Aravan, had taught the Elf to master this token of power, which allowed him to assume the form of a black falcon.
     
     
    As a black falcon and a Draega, they had managed to run down Ydral, where he had holed up in a Foul-Folk-infested black fortress on Neddra, a bastion that lay at a nexus of four in-between crossings. Respectively, three of the in-betweens connected Neddra to Mithgar, to Adonar, and to Vadaria; the fourth one they knew not where it led—perhaps to the Hidden Ones’ world of Feyer or to the Dragon world of Kelgor, or somewhere else entirely—for at that time only the bloodways were open, and Bair, in spite of his stone ring, could not make that crossing: he had not the blood in his veins that would allow him to do so.
     
     
     
Regardless as to where that fourth crossing led, it was the black fortress that concerned Bair and Aravan’s current mission, for it controlled vital in-between ways that would allow Foul Folk access to Free Folk lands.
     
     
    Bair and Aravan had returned to Adonar to make certain all was ready and to set in motion the final stage of Bair’s plan. They had found the Elven host assembled and eager, and so the order was given to march to the in-between. And now the two fared ahead of the army to ensure that their even more powerful allies had assembled as well.
     
     
    In moments Aravan had dressed out the rabbit and had set it to roast above a small fire.
     
     
    “Kelan,” asked Bair, “how far to the in-between, do you reck?”
     
     
    “Thirty leagues, I deem,” answered Aravan.
     
     
    “Then nigh the mark of noon on the morrow, neh?”
     
     
    “Aye, elar. Wouldst thou could run as fast as I can fly; then ’twould be midmorn.”
     
     
    “Ah, you’re just anxious to get to Aylis, I ween,” said Bair, grinning.
     
     
    Aravan laughed. “There is that.”
     
     
    They sat without speaking for long moments, watching the coney sizzle above the flames. Bair’s mind recalled the last time he had seen Aylis, and the stratagem she proposed. Alamar had quickly accepted it, but he wanted another Seer to accomplish the deed. Yet Aylis would have none of that, saying it was her plan and she would be the one to carry it out. Finally, Bair said, “I am both sad and glad that she has decided to join in the battle.”
     
     
    “As am I,” replied Aravan. Then he sighed and added, “Not that either of us could have prevented it; she’s quite reckless at times, you know. ’Tis one of the things I love about her, and one of the things I most dread.”
     
     
    As fat sizzled and dripped, Bair slowly turned the spit. He glanced across at Aravan and said, “She surprised me with her plan.”
     
     
    “Aye,” said Aravan. “Still, it will let us know what we are up against and perhaps tell us the best time to attack.”
     
     
    Bair nodded and turned the spit. “Before Aylis made her proposal, I had thought a Seer would give the best aid by peering into the past and noting when guards change and when the sentries are most likely to be lax, or by looking into the future and telling us the moment to launch.”
     
     
    Aravan nodded