A Blackbird In Darkness (Book 2) by Freda Warrington Page B

scars on his face. What battles had he been through?
    ‘Then you’d better know everything. That venom that the Serpent left is like a living substance; it spreads through and over the ground, killing everything it touches. We’ll have to evacuate the village soon. It spreads in sudden rushes, without warning. So many animals killed, farmlands ruined… Eventually it will cover the whole of Forluin. We’re doing our best with what’s left, but it’s only a matter of time. Once it goes into the water, we’re finished. That’s how things are, my friend.’
    Estarinel felt hollow with misery, as though there was no ground beneath his feet and never would be again. But for Falin’s sake…
    ‘There is hope,’ he said, trying to sound convincing. ‘The H’tebhmellians are helping us... forgive me, I don’t feel I can speak of it, nor all the things we’ve been through so far. But there is hope.’
    Falin tried to smile. ‘It’s all right. I don’t need to know yet. I’d rather wait until the Quest is over and then you can spend hours by the fire, or out in the meadows, telling us everything that happened.’ His bravery was forced.
    ‘I will come back,’ Estarinel said.
    ‘Yes. You must.’ And they looked at each other, sharing memories of their childhood and families, all the friends and animals and places that had made their lives in Forluin so beautiful, until the Worm came.
    They sat by the fire for another hour or so, but there was little else they could say to each other. At last Estarinel stood up and wished Falin good night, saying he would look in on Medrian before retiring, to see that she was all right.
    Falin settled the fire and put a guard over it, then doused all the lamps except one, which he took into his room. Once in bed, he extinguished that as well and lay for a long time, staring into the darkness.
    He was desperately worried about Estarinel. He seemed exhausted and disheartened by the first stage of the Quest, and on top of that he’d had the terrible shock of his family’s deaths. Yet Falin noticed how unnaturally calm he appeared since arriving at the cottage. Something within him was suppressing the grief, allowing it no expression in tears or anger. If Estarinel continued to restrain his misery, Falin thought, it would eventually destroy him. He would be unable to continue the Quest on which Forluin’s future depended.
    Falin came to a decision then. He had the same grief to bear, but he’d had longer to accept terms it. He finally believed the nightmare was real, and he had not suffered Estarinel’s mental and physical anguish on the first part of the Quest. He knew that slaying the Serpent was not a matter of revenge, but of Forluin’s survival, and he would do anything to spare his dearest friend left alive from further suffering.
    They should have sent me in the first place, he thought. My family was already dead, I had nothing to lose – except Arlena. I am ready to go in his place.
    With the decision came release from the terrible anxiety that had gripped him for days, and he closed his eyes and slept soundly.
    #
    Estarinel knocked softly on the door of Medrian’s room, then hesitated. He realised that his calmness, which had descended apparently from nowhere, had come from inside himself, solely to protect Falin from the even greater distress his grief would have caused. Out of Falin’s company he no longer felt calm, was starting to tremble. He hoped Medrian would be asleep, so that he could sit with her for a few minutes and then leave.
    Instead, she was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and gazing at the softly glowing lamp.
    ‘Medrian,’ he said quietly. ‘I should have waited for you by the farm – you could have got lost. I wasn’t thinking.’
    She did not look at him, only stared at the lamp as if he were not there. He knew it was pointless to apologise, that she must understand well enough the distress that had caused him to run