The Well of Darkness Read Online Free

the hand that held the pouch; my fist caught the left side of her jaw. Tarani fell over, rolled, jumped to her feet as I staggered up. I saw, but barely noticed that she, too, was moving unsteadily, that her face looked as parched and puffy as mine felt.
    “Traitor!” I thought I was yelling, but the sound I heard was a hoarse whisper. “Is this why you’ve stayed with me—to steal the Ra’ira for yourself?”
    “Fool!” she spat back, caressing her darkening jaw with the back of her hand. “Obilin is almost on us! Can you not hear the dralda?”
    Dralda.
Pylomel’s dralda.
Only the barest link existed between the remembered, meaningless words and the sound I heard. The mournful coughing, drifting closer as we listened, lifted the fur along the back of my neck.
    “Escape is impossible now,” Tarani said. “Do you want Indomel to have the Ra’ira? Throw it away, Rikardon!” she gasped, commanding and pleading in the same breath. “Bury it in the sand!”
    I struggled with confusion, watching Tarani warily as she stepped a little closer to me.
    “We’d never find it again,” I protested.
    “It is better lost than in service to Indomel’s power,” she grated, and lunged to grab the pouch.
    I snatched my hand back, tottering in reaction to the sudden movement. “There are no dralda,” I snarled. “The sound is one of your illusions, a trick to get the Ra’ira for yourself!” I moved off, waving her away. “Stay back,” I warned her.
    “It is not an illusion,” Tarani said, with such a tone of hopelessness that I found myself swept up in a new confusion.
    “We got away from Eddarta,” I said. “We brought the Ra’ira away from Gharlas and Pylomel and Indomel. We escaped. The Ra’ira is safe now,” I said, with the fierceness of a child who hopes that saying a thing will make it true.
    I heard the sound again, blood-stopping in its strangeness and its eagerness.
    It
‘
s true
, I thought,
we
‘
re still in danger. But I
—
I have to get the Ra
‘
ira to Raithskar. I
‘
ve been doing my best, without Keeshah. It wasn
‘
t fair that Keeshah had to leave. I
‘
ve been doing all I could. Haven
‘
t I?
    They
‘
re almost here
, I realized in a panic.
We
‘
ll be killed and Indomel will get the Ra
‘
ira. I
—
I
‘
ve failed. But it isn
‘
t my fault, it
‘
s Keeshah
‘
s
. No,
that
‘
s wrong, Keeshah couldn
‘
t help it. It
‘
s not Keeshah
‘
s fault. It
‘
s …
    “It’s your fault!” I cried to Tarani, turning fear and despair into a seething rage. “You think I don’t remember, but I do. We were two days ahead of them when Keeshah left,
two days.
You’ve been pulling at me, dragging on me, holding us back. If it weren’t for you, we’d still be far ahead of them.
It’s your fault!
“
    I stepped up to her, my right arm poised for a swing.
    She stepped back, and her sword appeared in her hand.
    “The next time you strike me,” she said, “will be the last time.”
    I stopped, stunned and surprised by the savage menace in her voice and posture.
    “You have resisted everything I tried to do to save us,” she said, shouting now to be heard over the noise of pursuit. “The dralda have to be following
Keeshah’s
scent, and I’ve been trying to move us
away
from Keeshah’s track. It may be too late for us,” she said, “but I refuse to let your foolishness cost us the final prize.
    “Now, Lonna!”
    A streak of white flashed by me. The bird’s claws raked my left hand; the pain startled me into dropping the pouch. Lonna banked a sharp turn and dipped close to the ground to grab up the piece of leather and its contents.
    “No!” I shouted and dived. My hands closed around the pouch just as Lonna grabbed it. “Protecting the Ra’ira is
my
job!”
    The bird screeched; Tarani shouted; the eerie call of the dralda drew nearer. I clung desperately to the piece of leather while the bird’s wings beat blindingly against my face and her claws pulled at pouch and