The caravan rolled on. The darkness grew deeper, more encompassing. The caravan trail showed itself as a dark line with a bumpy pale carpet of mushrooms reflecting the lantern light to either side. There was no sound but the creaking of the wagon and the thump of the goats' hooves on the ground.

When it was time to stop for lunch, the wagons were drawn off the trail and into a circle near a stream. The lanterns were shifted so that all illuminated the inside of the circle, and a cook came out of the kitchen wagon with an assortment of cold foods. Silas picked at his food, his shadow over the meal slowing him down.

Suddenly, Silas noticed that it had grown darker. One of the lanterns must be out. He looked over to it with an eye to relighting it, only to find it missing entirely. He nudged Joachim.

"What happened to the light?" he asked.

"I don't know. It should be there." Joachim raised his voice. "Hey, who took the lantern from the passenger wagon?"

Everyone started looking around, but nobody said a word.

"Guards, alert," said Caspar. "Joachim, check the wagons."

Joachim left his meal and walked toward the passenger wagon. He opened the door to darkness and looked within.

"No one's inside," he reported.

"I see a light outside the wagon circle," called a guard.

"Take someone with you and check it," Caspar ordered. "The rest of you, keep a watch elsewhere in case it's a diversion."

"I'll go."

The two guards walked cautiously into the darkness, one holding a lantern, the other with his spear ready to strike. Silence, then:

"You idiot! Get back to the wagons!"

"But I…"

"Didn't think, that's what! You're lucky someone noticed you'd taken a lantern or we would have left you alone, in the dark, with little but a long walk back to Bastion, assuming you could even find the trail again. Now get back to the wagon and stay there!"

When the wagons were moving again, Caspar was riding with Joachim and Silas and the passenger wagon was moved forward in the train, "To keep an eye on the unreliable elements," according to Joachim.

"Thanks for spotting that missing lantern, Silas," Caspar said.

"How could I miss an absent light? They're our protection against the darkness."

"Strange thing to say when going to Shadowhome," put in Joachim. "But out here, surrounded by darkness? I understand the sentiment."

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Silas fell into an uneasy lassitude. There was little new to see, just the same mushrooms, the same trail, the same wagon. Neither Joachim nor Caspar were talking, so there wasn't even variation in sound to keep him alert. Suddenly, all that changed.

A shrill whistle sounded. Seconds later, the lanterns in the passenger wagon went out and the wagon stopped. The goats pulling Joachim's wagon swerved to avoid the stopped wagon and promptly got stuck in the mushrooms and rocks off the trail. The goats started screaming. Something clattered against the metal frame of Silas's wagon.

"Get down!"

Silas obeyed immediately and jumped off the wagon. He crouched on the ground. As he looked into the darkness, lights flared and arced through the sky toward him. Where they landed, fires started. A mushroom exploded in a cloud of flaming spores, setting off a chain reaction as the dry mushrooms took it in turn to ignite and further scatter fires around the caravan. People Silas assumed to be guards charged into the darkness, seeking the attackers.

And then—

"Enough!"

A blinding light illuminated the area, creating hard-edged shadows that stretched out like fingers behind each mushroom. His eyes watering in the glare, Silas could barely see lines of light reflecting off the smoke as they stretched from a robed figure in the back wagon to each of the attackers, who began screaming as they too caught fire. They dropped to the ground, trying to put out the fires burning them, but the rays of light followed them down, spreading the fire to their backs. More mushrooms exploded around them and the screams were replaced with choking sounds as the bandits struggled to breath in the clouds of cinders. The attack was over but the screams continued.

Joachim jumped down from the wagon and threw Silas a large leather blanket.

"Help me with the goats. Use that to smoother any flames."

Silas got up and approached the goats. They were the source of the screams, flames burning their coats, trying to run, but tangled in their traces. Silas threw the blanket over the closest goat, and patted it down, trying to put out the flames. The goat stopped screaming and stood trembling. Silas went on to the next goat, and the next, while Joachim did the same for those on the other side. Every few seconds, a pop or thump from another exploding fungus punctuated the crackle of the flames.

Once Joachim's goats were under control, they set the brake and went forward to check the passenger wagon. The driver was dead, slumped forward on the seat, his head smashed in from behind. The passengers were missing.

"They must have been with the bandits," muttered Joachim to Silas. "A driver hit from behind, the wagon stopped, breaking up the caravan. I hope the flambeau got them."

"The flambeau?" asked Silas.

"Ah, I guess you wouldn't see them too often in the cities. Flambeaux are living bearers of light. They generally spend their time among the mines and fortresses that could not be built around a light well. We were fortunate that one was travelling with us, though I suppose it might have been better if these other 'passengers' had known."

"Oh?"

"You saw what the flambeau did. Would you attack a caravan knowing that someone like that was going to protect it? Good way to get yourself killed." Joachim spat on the ground. "Though I suppose this way the next caravan is safe too and we got off pretty lightly. Hard on the goats though."

"How did they do that?" asked Silas.

"Flambeaux create light, when, where, and however they please."

"How? I didn't see any lanterns or even lenses or prisms to direct the light."

"They don't need them. When a flambeau wishes for light, it simply appears. It must take some effort though, since they don't glow all the time."

"But even the priests can't just create light! Direct it, manipulate it, those are things they can do. Even store it in loops to use later. But to make it from nothing, that's not possible!"

"Silas, I think you're going to be saying that a lot. And why shouldn't it be possible? Fires create light, whatever the stars are creates light. Even fireflies create light. Why not a person?"

"But people can't create light."

"No, you can't create light directly. All the people you knew can't create light. Now you've met someone who can. Now help me get these goats settled."