So they spurred their horses on and found that the Prince of Farthestshore walked a path that led down into the gorge, a path wide and easy enough that the horses made no complaint about following him. The men, however, were much more nervous, and they were more nervous still when they reached the edge of the dark forest below.
No one entered the Wilderlands. It was an unspoken rule throughout Southlands. The bridges were life and the Wilderlands forbidden since the ancient days before words were written down or the Eldest’s House was built. No one climbed down to the Wilderlands below unless banished in cruelest punishment for the most vile of deeds.
Yet the Prince of Farthestshore did not slacken his pace as he passed into the shadows of the forest. The men shivered as they followed him, and icy tremors, not entirely unpleasant but strange, passed through each of them. None of them spoke as they moved single file through the trees. Each one’s vision on either side was blurred and distorted, almost as though he wore blinders. The passage of time was uncertain, for the sun hardly seemed to move overhead as it gleamed through the trees. They walked in a straight line, never turning or inclining either to the left or to the right. Suddenly they were out of the woods again, and their vision cleared.
Catspaw swore under his breath as he recognized where they were. Somehow, without crossing the isthmus, he and his men stood on the Continent, many days’ journey from the Eldest’s City, in the hinterlands of Shippening. He looked over his shoulder and saw a dark wood very like those of Southlands, but he knew it could not possibly be the same.
“Sister o’ Death!” one man at his elbow hissed. “What miracle or magic is this? How’d we cross the Chiara Bay without so much as wetting our feet?”
Captain Catspaw did not answer but stared at the solitary figure standing before him and at the landscape beyond. The Red Desert stretched before them, great and hot, a nightmare come to life.
“Captain?” One of his men urged his horse up beside him and whispered urgently, “Are we going in there?”
The captain spurred his horse so viciously that the poor creature startled, and rode up beside the Farthestshore man. “Sir,” he said, his voice only just respectful.
Aethelbald looked up at him. “Yes, captain.”
“Where are you taking us?”
The stranger indicated with his chin. “That way.”
“Into the Red Desert?”
“Yes, captain.”
Catspaw quietly swore again but bit back the first few remarks that sprang to his lips. At last, sucking in a deep breath, he said, “My men have seen enough of dragons, sir.”
Aethelbald did not answer.
The captain spoke through clenched teeth. “If you have a death wish, I beg you would not drag us along with you.”
“I have no death wish, Captain Catspaw,” Aethelbald replied.
“Look, sir,” the captain said, glancing uneasily at the vast expanse of sand, dry as bone, stretched before him, “we do not know you, do not know your kind. Perhaps you are aware of something we are not – ”
“I am,” the stranger interrupted. “And if you will follow me, I will see that you come to no harm.”
“That’s a pretty promise,” the captain snorted. “But it won’t hold up against dragon fire. I’ve seen what one dragon can do! We all have. Maybe you think all those stories and legends we’ve heard were exaggerated, but I assure you they are not. Far from it! We have all of us breathed in dragon fumes and lived under the shadow of dragon smoke for five long years, and it’s a miracle any of us is alive. That being said, sir, you cannot expect me to lead my men into the heart of dragon country.”
“I do not expect you to lead them,” Aethelbald replied. “I ask all of you to follow me.”
“To what purpose?” the captain cried, and he heard his men murmuring their agreement behind him. “At least give us a reason for this suicide!”
“Is not the command of your prince enough?” Aethelbald asked.
“No, sir, I must say it is not. Prince Lionheart is young. And he escaped those five years living under that demon’s eye.”
“Very well,” Aethelbald said. “I will not ask you to follow me by his command, captain. But I ask you to follow me even so.”
“Why?”
“As your prince told you, we seek a treasure from the heart of the desert, from the very center of the Dragon’s kingdom. It is more dangerous than you can imagine, and one false step will mean death for you or much worse. But if you walk behind me and do not stray from my path, you will remain unharmed. You have my word.”
Catspaw looked into the stranger’s eyes. Something inside him stirred, and he felt as though, yes, perhaps he could follow this man. Had he not led them already down a way so strange that they would never have believed it existed? Had he not brought them farther in one day than they could have traveled in ten?