Mariko had overslept. She hauled her captive to his feet and started to push him ahead, grumbling quietly to herself and jabbing him in the ribs. She had a rueful thought that she should have gone back to the towns instead of following the track.

She was lost. She had no idea where she was and all she knew was that the grass beneath her feet was disappearing and becoming stone. Mariko looked up, the land stretched away before her, hard and flat and grey. She poked her captive with the dagger point. "Do you know where we are?" she asked.

The prisoner lifted his gaze and blinked his eyes against the bright sun. "Silence Gorge," he said. Then he smiled and collapsed, exhausted.

#

Silence Gorge was an immense furrow in the landscape, thousands of years old. Legend said it was the line scored in the ground by the giant Harran, marking the border between Malinas and Langshire.

The gorge was a huge grey slate ravine where no animals lived and nobody ever heard a sound. It was a strange place, never echoing, but it was a safe haven and would do for now as a home for the remaining Elani refugees.

Leif stood in front of the trainee warriors and demonstrated the correct way to hold a battle staff. He half-turned as behind him Old Synan chuckled as the youngest Elani struggled even to lift the hardwood staff.

Stolen story; please report.

"Synan, sir, kindly stop that and show some encouragement," he said through clenched teeth.

Old Synan, with his hands clasped over the top of his walking stave and his eyes smiling, said, "My apologies, Leif. But I was just thinking, maybe we should learn to fashion new weapons? And one of a lighter sort for young Kirin at that."

Leif looked at the expectant faces in front of him. They had all been trying their hardest for the past few days but few showed any real promise with a staff. Leif thought back to target practice, only two of them had consistently managed to strike his marks. He smiled, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Would you like to learn to use swords?"

The Elani shuffled their feet awkwardly. Swords were the weapons of the Lamya but they each knew they had to use a weapon more deadly if they were to stand any chance at all. Leif knew it too.

"Kirin? What about you?" He turned to the youngest Elani there, a twelve–year–old boy whose mother, father and two older brothers had all been taken by the Lamya.

The boy looked at his battle staff. It was far too long and heavy for him to get a good balance with. "What about if I had a spear?" he suggested. "Or a light javelin. There's plenty of slate here. We shouldn't let it go to waste."

Synan laughed heartily and slapped his hand against his leg. "Ha, ha! Oh dear, it takes the youngest mind to see the simplest solution. Of course, Leif, it would be madness not to make a use of this rock."

Leif nodded and gazed round at the tall sides of Silence Gorge, at the odd scraggy trees clinging to the rock. "Yes," he said. "And we can use the wood of our staffs to carve new weapons. Okay, class dismissed for the day. Kirin, would you, Orsino and Malin go and look for suitable bits of the sharpest flint. Lachlan, come with me to find Maemi, she should've been back by now."

"And us?" asked Jia, a gentle woman, her long battle staff held clumsily by her side. "Should we stay with Old Synan?"

Leif gave her a fond smile. She was about the same age as his mother and just as beautiful. She was a herbalist, not a warrior. "Yes, Jia, you stay here with Honovi and keep the old man company. Come on, Lachlan, let's go and find out where Maemi's got to."