Carra’s fear grew and she could no longer see the beauty in
the landscape. Instead, the rugged
geometry of the mountainous country became wild and dangerous. The high ground to the right seemed to grow
steeper, rockier and nearer until it crowded the road so they were now
enveloped in menacing shadows. The cliff
face seemed to squeeze them toward the river, which ran ten to fifteen feet
below the level of the road in this place and coursed dangerously over jagged rocks. Here in the shade of the cliff, there was ice
beneath the snow and she worried about Badger falling and crushing her beneath
his weight while the riders behind her struggled to avoid trampling her.
The Nameless Ones hadn’t been successful in deceiving
animals so far, but was that due to inability and limits to their powers or
merely due to the fact that they had not used this tactic before? This was a possibility they hadn’t even
discussed in the council! What kind of
fools had they been? This was an obvious
oversight on all their parts. She
suddenly wondered what terrible things could happen if the Valkea turned her
fell will to the horses and drove them mad with fear. A stampede of frenzied horses on the icy
ground could prove disastrous.
A dribble of nervous sweat rolled down her back and she
shivered, not from the cold but from nervous panic as a vision worse than the
horse falling seeped into her thoughts.
The possibility of Badger grabbing the bit between his teeth and
plunging insanely into the depths of the river beside her was a thought that
filled her mind with dread and her heart with fear. She had never felt comfortable standing on
the lip above a steep slope and the idea of meeting her death by crashing into
jagged rocks was particularly alarming to her.
She was an accomplished horsewoman but what hope had she to stop a
panicked horse on slippery ground?
Her uncomfortable thoughts pulled her focus deeper into the
fear until it was nearly choking her reason.
Unconsciously, her body translated her growing terror to her hands and
she slowly started to tighten the reins and stiffened her position in the
saddle. Badger finally protested with a
snort and he pulled against her grasp to loosen the reins. His ears were turned toward her – not in an
aggressive fashion – but as if he was trying to gauge her mood for she had so
dramatically changed how she was connecting to him through rein and saddle.
Carra noticed what she was doing and eased her grip. Fear still clouded her thoughts and out of
instinct and long habit, she uttered a silent prayer for help.
“Spirit, please protect me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment