The Quest (The Hidden Realm Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

extinguished by Anthea’s death.
    “If we are not traveling to Tarsius then we must climb back up the cliff before the Goblins arrive,” said Ascilius urgently to Elerian, who stood stunned, as if struck by some great blow. “We can hear the rest of Dacien’s news when we are safe in the passageway.”
    “I will not abandon my horses,” interrupted Dacien firmly when he heard Ascilius mention the word passageway. “They have run their hearts out to bring me here in so few days.”
    “Fear not for your steeds,” said Elerian, rousing himself from the numbed state that he had fallen into. “I will put a spell of protection on them that will see them safely home.”
    “As for Anthea,” he mused silently to himself, “I will not accept that she is dead until I see her lifeless body before me. It may only be that Torquatus, sensing its purpose, removed her ring, causing mine to darken.” After Dacien reluctantly stripped the saddle and bridle from his stallion, Elerian whispered into each of the four horses' ears, laying the spells of hiding and finding on them that he had used on Enias before venturing on to Ennodius.
    “If he returned to Tarsius safely then they will too,” thought Elerian to himself. When he stepped back, Dacien threw his arms briefly about his stallion’s neck, his eyes glistening.
    “We must trust that we will meet again in better times, Mylachen,” he said quietly. “Return home and wait for me.” His stallion immediately wheeled about and fled down the pass with upraised tail, followed by his three companions. Whether it was some trick of the rising sun or the spells Elerian had laid upon them, the horses quickly disappeared from sight.
    “Follow us,” said Elerian gently to Dacien before running back to the rope that still dangled from the ledge. In the distance, he now heard horns and shouting. As he had suspected earlier, there was a Goblin encampment hidden nearby in the forest. The mutare who had escaped from Ascilius must have reached it and raised the alarm.
    By the time Dacien and Ascilius reached the rope, Elerian, after retrieving his treasure bags and pack, had already ascended to the ledge, pulling himself up easily hand over hand despite the burden he carried. Ascilius scrambled onto the ledge next. Dacien, after making the end of the rope fast to his saddle and bridle, followed after him. As soon as the Tarsi climbed up onto the ledge, Elerian untied the rope end from the fir tree while Ascilius drew up Dacien’s saddle. The moment that the saddle reached the ledge, Elerian called his silver ring to his hand, rendering himself and his companions invisible. As Ascilius wrapped his rope into a tight coil prior to stowing it in his pack, the first Goblins and mutare noisily rushed past the ledge, running for the crest of the pass. Shouldering Dacien’s saddle, Ascilius now led the way up the path, walking slowly and carefully, for he could not see his feet. Dacien followed close at his heels, his right hand holding onto a stirrup. Elerian followed his two invisible companions easily, for his third eye revealed both the golden shades of his companions and the dark world that surrounded them.
    When he came to a small thicket of stunted firs, Ascilius stopped. Hidden behind a wall of green, he and his companions watched anxiously as a black hooded Uruc mounted on a sleek atrior arrived at the summit of the pass. At once the Goblin captain set sharp-eyed Mordi skilled in tracking to examining the road and the ground on either side of it, but they found nothing of significance, for the stony surface of the pass and the flagstone paved road would have shown little sign even if a hundred mounted men had passed over them. The mutare had no better luck as they snuffled about on all fours, smelling the ground where the battle had taken place. Only weak scents, hard to unravel, clung to the dry, stony surface of the road. The changelings quickly became distracted from their task by