The Dark Shadow of Spring by G. L. Breedon

town’s warlock. His father had taught him woodcrafts like tracking since he was a small boy. As the town enforcer of law, it was a very important skill for a warlock to have when someone tried to evade justice.
    The Mad Mages had slowed their descent down the mountain to a safe walk and it wasn’t long before Alex had closed the gap between them. As he silently stalked his quarry, he thought he heard something. Like a whisper. From upslope. He stopped and looked in the direction he thought he had heard something, but no new sound followed. That was when he had an idea: To loop around the Mad Mages and catch them in an ambush. Dillon and the others were following the same deer path that Alex and the Guild had traversed earlier that afternoon. It would take them sideways along the mountain for another half mile before veering back down slope. If he cut upward, quickly and quietly, in the direction he thought he had heard the whisper, he could get to the point where the deer path made a sharp turn before Dillon reached it. Then he could lay a trap.
    It wasn’t a great plan, because he had no idea yet what the trap would be, but ambushing the Mad Mages, even all alone by himself, gave him a thrilling feeling in his chest. It took him a moment to realize that feeling was the thrill of revenge. If he hadn’t been so angry, with himself as much as Dillon, he would have stopped and cautioned himself on the dangers of revenge. As it was, he cut up the mountain slope, moving silently through the trees and underbrush and passing through a small clearing.
    Alex was so engrossed in his ambush plan, and trying to deny the wisdom about the dangers of revenge that his mother and father had given him, that he was taken completely by surprise when the low pile of rocks and branches he was walking over collapsed inward, sending him tumbling down into darkness. He was so surprised, he didn’t think to scream as he fell through stones and branches down into a deep black hole. Something very much like a rock struck the back of his skull and the blackness of the cave around him faded into the blackness within his head, and that blackness stretched on and on and…
     

Chapter 5: Whispers in the Shadows
     
    On his back, his right arm bent behind him, his head throbbing, Alex opened his eyes to stars. Not stars swimming before his eyes from the knock to his head, but stars in the night sky as seen through the opening in the ceiling of the cave he had fallen into.
    How long? Alex thought. How long have I been out? He took a moment to mentally scan his body. Nothing seemed broken, just bruised, but his head still pulsed in time with his heartbeat. He sat up slowly, his body aching in a dozen different places. He ran his hands gently over his head and found a large knot at the base of his skull. It was too tender to touch even lightly. Looking up again at the stars, he guessed he had been unconscious for at least three hours. It had been late afternoon when he set out to follow Dillon and the Mad Mages. Sunset would have been two hours away. And the sky looked very dark. Maybe four hours.
    Why hadn’t anyone found him? Maybe his friends were still looking for him. If it wasn’t too dark, they might have kept searching. It wasn’t uncommon for the Guild to stay out well into the night on a weekend. Their parents wouldn’t begin to worry for another hour or so. If they found him.
    “Help,” Alex croaked. His throat felt like it was coated with dry leaves. Maybe it was. “Help,” he said again. Louder this time. Almost a shout. “Help! I’m down here! In a cave!”
    Light , he thought. What he needed was light. He stood up slowly. He was a bit wobbly, but not unstable. The crystal glow-wand was still in his back pocket where he had slipped it while running from the dragon’s lair. Part of the glow-wand, at least. It had shattered. He took a shard of crystal out of his pocket, spoke the rune-word for light, and tried to focus his mind to