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And blight and disease and desolation spread...
Posted on 2010-Feb-11 at 11:49
And blight and disease and desolation spread where he passed, wherever he walked upon the earth
He stood now on the nearest of the wasted hills west of the river, clouds of obscuring mist rising and flowing all around himElena could not discern his face, none of them ever had, but from within that smoke and darkness she saw him raise his hands and stretch them out toward them, reaching, reaching for the Walkers on the riverbankAnd as he did Elena felt a sudden shaft of coldness come into her heart, a terrible, numbing chillHer legs began to trembleShe saw that her hands were shaking and it seemed that there was nothing she could do, nothing at all, to hold her courage to her
Across the stream the Others, his army or his allies or the amorphous projections of his spirit, saw him stretch his arms toward the battlefieldElena heard a sudden savage exultation in their cries; she saw them massing west of the river to come at them againAnd she remembered, weary and spent, with a grim despair reaching into her black prada leather handbag heart, that this was exactly how it had been last year, and the spring before that, and the spring before as wellHer spirit ached with the knowledge of loss to come, even as she fought to find a way to ready her exhausted body to face another charge
Mattio was beside her"No!" she heard him gasp, with a dull, hopeless insistence, blindly fighting the power of that figure on the hill"Not this time! Not! Let them kill me! Not retreat again!"
He could scarcely speak, and he was bleeding, she sawThere was a gash in his right side, another along his legWhen he straightened to move to the river she saw that he was limpingHe was doing it though, he was moving forward, even into the face of what was being leveled at themElena felt a sob escape her dry throat
And now the Others were coming againThe wounded man beside her struggled gamely up from his knees, holding his sword in his left hand, his useless right arm dangling at his sideFurther along the bank she saw men and women as badly wounded or worseThey were all black and white chanel purses standing though, and lifting their bladesWith love, with a shafting of pride that was akin to pain, Elena saw that the Night Walkers were not retreatingThey were ready to hold this ground, or to tryAnd some of them were going to die now she knew, many of them would die
Then Donar was beside her, and Elena flinched at what she saw in his white faceIf we lose too many tonight it will be even worse next springI have to play for time, to hope for something that will make a change The words sounded as if they were scraped from his throat
Elena felt herself beginning to cry, from exhaustion as much as anything elseAnd even as she was nodding from within the abyss of her weariness, trying to let Donar see her understanding, her support, wanting to ease the rawness of his pain, even as the Others drew near again, triumphant, hideous, unwearied, she abruptly realized that Baerd wasn't with them on the bankShe wheeled toward the river, looking for him, and so she saw the miracle begin
He was never in any doubt, none fake louis vuitton handbags at allFrom the moment the mist-wrapped figure appeared on the black hill Baerd knew what it wasIn an odd way he had known this even before the shadow-figure cameIt was why he was here, Baerd realizedDonar might not know it, but this was why the Elder had had a dream of someone coming, why Baerd's steps that night had taken him to the place where Elena was watching in the darkIt seemed to have been a long time ago
He couldn't see the figure clearly but that didn't matter, it really didn'tHe knew what this was aboutIt was as if all the sorrows and the lessons and the labors of his life, his and Alessan's together, had brought him to this river under this green moon that someone here might know exactly what the figure on the black hill was, the nature of its powerThe power the Night Walkers had not been able to withstand because they could not understand
He heard a splash behind him and knew instinctively that it would be MattioWithout turning he handed him his strange swordThe Others, the Ygrathens of his tiffany jewelry canada dreams and hate, were massing again on the western bankRight now they did not matter at allThey had been beaten by the courage of Donar and the Walkers; only the shadow-figure signified now, and Baerd knew what was needed to deal with thatNot a prowess of blades, not even with these swords of grainThey were past that now
He drew a deep breath, and he raised his hands from his sides and pointed up at that shrouded figure on the hill, exactly as the figure was pointing down at themAnd with his heart full to overflowing with old grief and a young certainty, conscious that Alessan would say it better, but knowing that this had become his task, and knowing also what had to be done, Baerd cried aloud in the strangeness of that night:
"Be gone! We do not fear you! I know what you are and where your power lies! Be gone or I shall name you now and cut your strength apart, we both know the power of names tonight!"
Gradually the raucous cries subsided on the other side of the river, and the murmurs of the Walkers women rolex watches fade
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