Aelic stared up from the bottom of a deep pit. His vision was unfocused, and what looked at first to be dark, feathery hands reaching down from the pale sky above turned out to be layers and layers of massive roots. They burst out from all sides of the deep hole he had fallen into.
“Arghhh!” The pain awakened Aelic fully. His legs throbbed. His arm burned as if a white-hot blade had broken off under his skin. And he felt a tightness in his chest, as if a heavy weight lay on him, compressing his lungs.
Aelic tried to sit up, but it was such excruciating agony that he almost lost consciousness. He lay back in the dirt and gasped. Eventually, the pain evened out to a dull pulse, and Aelic could think again.
The darkness is gone, he realized, looking at the circle of gray sky above. It all came back to him then. Fighting the wolvin Sleeper . . . if it hadn’t been for Gabby . . . Gabby! Aelic thought with a start. Aelic felt certain that Gabby had sacrificed herself so that he might live.
Aelic’s left hand bumped into something. He reached for it. It was Fury! And with what little strength he had, he lifted the blade from the soil. He stared at the hilt, at the engraved image of the sun rising between the sacred peaks of Pennath Ador. It brought him hope. For there the sun had risen, a bright new dawn, marking the return of King Eliam. There, as in the forests of Yewland, had been suffering and tragedy. But King Eliam had proven to be greater still, even greater than death.
“I am never alone,” Aelic whispered. And then he heard voices from above.
