Free Heights of the Depths by Peter David Page B

not!”
     
    iv.
    Her voice had been sharp enough and her attitude clearly brooking no argument from them, so Turkin, Berola and the others fell into behind her. When they had returned to Kerda and the others, there had been questioning looks and attempts to discern what had just happened. Clarinda had shut it all down and led them away from the immediate area.
    They continued to move through the darkness, and it seemed to Clarinda that every shadow from every outstretched tree hid an enemy. Every branch was like a giant outstretched hand with long, wooden fingers, threatening to grab them and hold them.
    The Ocular continued to run as quickly as their huge legs would carry them. Hour passed into hour, and darkness continued to hold sway as was typical for the land of Feend. They were, however, heading steadily south, and Clarinda knew that sooner or later they would leave the land of perpetual darkness behind them. When that happened, travel would become more problematic. Ocular were damned near blind during the day, and Clarinda would likewise require shelter from the sun’s rays lest it threatened to burn the skin from her body. Meanwhile Bartolemayne, less daunted by the sun than average Piri, would not be likewise constrained. He would no doubt lead the Piri in continued search of her, finding passages, caves and the like in which they could hide while they mounted their continued pursuit. There would be no place to rest. She had told the Ocular she would train them, mold them into a fighting force. The truth was that she had little concept of how to do such a thing, and no time in which to do it. The Piri had them on the run and there was no end in sight, unless one considered the Piri falling upon them during an unguarded moment, killing all the Ocular and stealing Clarinda back into the depths of Subterror to be an end. I suppose it is. It simply isn’t an end that I would welcome.
    Yet that was very likely the end that awaited them, unless they could find sanctuary.
    Sanctuary.
    “I know where we have to go,” she said abruptly. “I know where we will be safe from the Piri.”
    This brought the entire squad of Ocular to a halt. They grouped around Clarinda in a manner that could only be considered protective. She found it honestly to be somewhat sweet. It surprised her that she was thinking of Ocular in that manner. These brainless children who had only been a means to an end, to be used and disposed of when it was convenient. Yet now she thought it almost charming the way they were clustering around her as if to shield her from any harm.
    “Where?” said Kerda with hope in her voice that she almost seemed afraid to acknowledge was there.
    “Perriz.”
    The Ocular looked at each other, their single eyes blinking rapidly in both awe and amazement. “The home of the Firedraques? Really?” said Berola.
    “Yes. Really. The Firedraques are the great peacemakers. They always have been. If they agree to take us under their wing, we will be safe.”
    “And if they don’t?” said Turkin.
    “They will,” Clarinda said with a firmness that she did not feel, but at least was able to sound convincing over when she said it. “I know it. And if I know it, then you can know it, too.”
    “My mother always wanted to see Perriz!” said Berola. “Apparently she read about it a great deal in her youth! She told me all kinds of stories about it! But isn’t it far?”
    “Very,” said Clarinda. “But we will move as much as we can without resting, and find food along the way, and we will make the journey faster than any others possibly could. And we will find safety there, and sanctuary, and a home.”
    “Home,” the children whispered to each other, and that was all the incentive they required to keep going.
    She just prayed that she wasn’t leading them astray.
     
     

firedraque hall, Perriz
     
    I.
    Arren Kinklash did not enter Firedraque Hall so much as he was propelled into it. The infuriated Mandraque, his