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that had destroyed the tar town the chosen had
encountered must have taken a course that led them past the city he
had seen, but these were headed straight for it. If they were to
rescue any chosen from the city, they would have to move fast.
    Alighting on a
branch, he watched the Riders thunder past while he pondered this
quandary. The chosen were safe from the land now even if he left
them, but not from the Hashon Jahar. They would be in grave danger,
and they were too few to risk. Yet there would be chosen in the
city who would perish if he did not free them.
    The Black
Riders rode in rigid lines, four abreast, lances upright, staring
ahead with blank, lifeless eyes. The horses' glossy hides rippled,
and their nostrils flared with the effort of their gallop, but no
sweat streaked their silken flanks. He ruffled his feathers. What
he needed was to split himself in two, but even a Mujar could not
do that. He would need Talsy to accompany him to the city,
preferably with Kieran to protect her, for he could not set foot on
the earth blood. They would have to find and free the chosen, but
the Black Riders were a danger to them too, so he could not send
them alone.
    Chanter spread
his wings and drifted aloft, his mind made up. There was little
choice, his only option was to leave the chosen and take Talsy and
Kieran to the city, but he would not leave them unprotected. On the
flight back to the camp, he considered his options. Dolana was no
use, he could not control it from the air, and he would have to be
airborne over the city. Crayash was a fickle power, requiring a
fair amount of control, and Ashmar was far too difficult to control
from a distance. That left only Shissar, not a powerful defence,
but the best option in the circumstances. He sailed into the
sleeping camp and alighted on a branch, where he spent the rest of
the night guarding the chosen.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
    As dawn broke
and the camp stirred, Chanter resumed his man shape and went in
search of Talsy, finding her sharing a tent with Sheera at the edge
of the camp. He noticed Kieran's bedroll spread close by with a
smile, admiring the warrior's persistence in the face of the girl's
hostility. Then again, he mused, he knew nothing about Lowman
emotions or their strange mating rituals. He called Talsy, and she
emerged sleepy-eyed and tousled, her clothes rumpled. She splashed
her face with water from a skin, then followed him into the forest.
Well away from the camp, he found a sunny glade still carpeted with
mist and sheened with dew. He settled on a mossy log and gazed at
her. The morning sun glinted on her hair, burnishing it.
    "We have to go
ahead to a city, you, me and Kieran," he announced.
    She pulled a
face. "Do we need Kieran?"
    "Yes, you'll
need his protection in the city. Although I can fly above it, I
must not reveal my presence, for if I fall I'll be helpless on the
ground. The earth blood will trap me the moment I touch it. I
cannot risk that."
    She nodded.
"What about the chosen?"
    "I'll protect
them from the Hashon Jahar before I leave, and the land will not
harm them. I'll build a wall of ice around the camp. They must wait
within it until we return. You must explain it to them."
    "Why must we
hurry to the city?"
    Chanter glanced
at the pale rays of morning light that lanced through the forest.
"There's a column of Black Riders headed towards it, only a few
days away. We won't have a lot of time. You must be out of the city
before they arrive."
    "But how will
we find chosen in a city? There will be thousands of people there,
and if we go around asking, we'll be caught."
    "You must find
the seer," he said. "He or she will know who the chosen are. Seers
are always chosen."
    "But surely
they'll already have fled?"
    "How? To flee
into the forests of this land is certain death. No, they'll still
be there."
    Talsy nodded.
"Then we just lead them out of the city?"
    "Some of them.
Once I've spoken to the seer, we'll decide how to free the