Chasers of the Wind (26 page)

“Anything but that for me! I think I have the spirit of the Green City in my blood.”

“Thinking is bad for you, my friend,” said my sun softly. “As you well know, too many thoughts can lead to a whole heap of troubles. Pass me some water, please.”

Bamut sat up and stretched so that his joints popped. He did anything that was not part of his work at a leisurely pace. I could see how his laziness was enraging my wife.

“Take mine.” Midge threw her his flask. “A century will pass by before he gets moving.”

“Don’t bad-mouth me.” Bamut huffed as he stretched out again. “There’s no rush.”

I stepped out of the gloom where I’d been standing this whole time.

“Is everything all right?” Midge asked after clearing his throat. My appearance had caught him unawares.

“So it seems,” I answered him vaguely. “It’s quiet for the second day. It seems like they decided to leave us alone after all.”

“Glory be to Melot,” said Shen as he tossed a log onto the fading fire. “Spending every watch just waiting for something—”

“The longer you wait, the safer you’ll be.” Layen took a sip from Midge’s flask and frowned. “Ugh! Where did you get this water?”

“From a stream.” The runt was clearly not expecting such a question.

“You found a bad stream. It’s bitter.”

She spat and dumped out the flask.

“Hey! Hey!” Midge cried out. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t whine,” I advised him. “Is there nowhere to get water? Every day there’s two or three springs on our path. You won’t die.”

Still spitting, Layen tossed the empty flask to its owner.

“I’d have given permission, if only she’d asked,” he said grumpily as he twisted the lid back on. “We’ll get there tomorrow, right, Ness?”

“Who said?” I asked dryly.

“Well, that’s the way it looks. We’ve been walking in a straight line recently. We’re headed west. In the evenings the sun beats down right into my face, especially when we’re tromping through a field. If you count the days, we should already be there.”

You smart little toad. We should get rid of you. Today. This night. When everyone would be asleep. We no longer required your company.

“Should have doesn’t count in the forest.”

“I think that a child could find the road now.” I really didn’t like Midge’s smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said.

“I’m simply happy. I’ll be home soon.” He was still smiling boldly.

Layen and I exchanged furtive glances.

So then. What follows from everything we just heard? Even a child could find the road? Is that to say that he no longer requires a guide? Are they sure that they can get out of the woods themselves? Apparently. The idiots don’t know that there is a swamp in front of us, and we need to turn to the north. They believe they can get out of this scrape themselves. So of course our designation has changed—from dangerous companions to dangerous trophies for which quite a lot of money has been promised. Have they decided to do away with us? Yes, only we’ll do it sooner, boys.

We had to terminate Shen first. I couldn’t care less whether he was a Healer or not. Even if people like our Healer were born once in a hundred or even a thousand years, he was the most dangerous of the three.

“When I return to Al’sgara, I’m going to live it up.” Bamut sat up again. “Damn it.… I’ll buy myself a little house. On the outskirts. By the seashore. Or even better, a nice inn closer to the pier. And what are you going to do with your share, Midge?”

“Me?” The runt was lovingly picking the petals off a small, unattractive flower. “It’s too early to think about that. When I get it, then I’ll decide. Sorens always find a way to be spent.”

“You need to think about it in advance.”

“How are you planning on getting rich, boys?” I tried to enter the conversation casually, but inside I was cringing. “You expecting an inheritance?”

“Something like that.” Midge finished tearing off the petals and tossed what remained of the flower at me. “Here. Feast your eyes on that.”

Bamut suddenly guffawed.

“What is this?” I ignored the laughter.

“Greater Valerian. The key to ten thousand sorens. You still don’t understand? The root of that little flower could make even a horse fall asleep.”

“I never would have thought that you were so at home with forest herbs,” I said, drawing out the words.

“Unlike some upstarts, real Giiyans undergo lengthy schooling.” Midge wasn’t smiling anymore. “Don’t! It’ll be worse for you.”

I couldn’t reach for my bow. Bamut’s crossbow was unambiguously leveled at my chest.

“What should I make of this?” I asked coldly as I slanted my eyes to the right. To my surprise, Layen was sleeping.

“The water in the flask was bitter!” The realization stunned me.

They had outplayed us.

“Excellent!” Midge approved of my guess. “So it was. I don’t rely on it very much, but luck loves me. When the witch awakes—”

“She’ll boil your brains.”

“So we believed as well. I heard that she can’t do anything. Your woman is no more dangerous than a mosquito.”

That means it was him hiding in the bushes. They spied on us, the Abyss take me!

“If she hadn’t swallowed that junk we would have just whacked her over the head.” Bamut edged into the conversation.

“Mols won’t be happy.” I was regretting that Whip wasn’t here like never before.

“With that much money I can spit on both Mols and the guild, Gray.”

“Then I don’t understand why you’re chatting with me.”

“We don’t intend to kill you. What would we do with your heads in the forest? They’ll rot ten times over before we get them to the city. Threefingers might not believe us then. So we’ll bring Joch live goods. And whole. We won’t even beat you if you yield.”

“I’m simply thrilled,” I said and dropped sharply to my right side, simultaneously throwing my hatchet with my right hand.

The crossbow gave a loud crack and the released bolt passed over my head. Bamut hadn’t expected something like that from me, and he had fumbled and missed the shot. However, hitting your target when you have a Blazgian utak lodged in your forehead is not very easy.

One down!

Midge roared, leaped up into the air, and crashed into me with all his weight before I had a chance to get to my feet. The blow threw me over onto my back. At the last moment I intercepted his hand, which was holding a knife ready to pierce my hide. The blade froze an inch from my face. Midge was pressing down with all his strength in one direction, and I was pressing up in the other. With my free hand I scratched at his face, trying to get to his eyes.

“Do you need any help?” Shen’s voice rang out lazily.

“Of course! Yes! Idiot!” snarled Midge.

The knife came half an inch closer to my face. Suddenly my opponent shuddered and went limp. Shen was standing over him with a bloodstained skeem. Noticing my bemused expression, he smiled nonchalantly.

“I always disliked him.”

I pushed the corpse off me and stood up. “So what next?”

“Nothing. We may as well get along. I hope to hell that we’ll get to Al’sgara together.”

“And then?”

He looked at me for a very long time; then he put away his skeem and said quietly, “Let’s try to wake Layen.”

*   *   *

The forest thinned out. The impassable thickets and mighty trees disappeared; little paths emerged; and a multitude of clear springs tumbled out of the earth and flowed into a small lake, which was hidden from curious eyes behind a wall of thick spruce trees. The ground became boggy in places, the black flies and mosquitoes increased. They didn’t leave us be until the weather soured and it began to rain. It became damp, muggy, and nasty. All signs pointed to the fact that the Great Blazgian Swamp lay not far from here. We struck north, in the hopes of sooner or later emerging onto the road that traversed the boundaries of the swamp and the forest.

Layen was constantly spitting out bitter saliva and recalling Midge and Bamut with “kind” words. If she had her way, she would have happily killed the scoundrels a second time. We didn’t bother to bury them. I doubted this would offend Mols. The guild never defends those who go against its will. So the bodies remained there where they lay. Forest creatures need to eat too.

The Healer walked ahead and when he began to go astray I corrected his course. For obvious reasons we were not going to risk having Shen at our backs. Even after yesterday’s assistance, it wouldn’t do to trust him. But I did understand that all my precautions were just a drop in the ocean. Physically, I could wrap the kid around my finger, but I was powerless against his magic. And not just me, but Layen as well. Shen had definitely heard yesterday’s conversation with Midge and so he knew that my sun had temporarily lost her Gift.

The unprotected back of the Healer was always in front of my eyes, but the temptation to stab it with something sharp didn’t arise. The lad had one goal, and he voiced it more than once—to get to Al’sgara. From this I deduced that prior to the moment when the walls of the Green City appeared, his only interest in us would be as traveling companions. And killing everyone to your left and right is something only lunatics and scoundrels do. I dared to hope that after all my years of work I hadn’t become as vile a brute as Midge or Bamut.

By noon we were soaked to the skin from the endless rain. I feared for my bowstrings, although they were hidden away in a metal box at the very bottom of the pack in which we had our money. The fletching of my arrows should also be kept dry, but there was nothing I could do about that. It’s a good thing that we were walking under the trees, as some of the drops settled on the branches and leaves instead of on us.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to light a fire this evening,” said Shen. The hood of his jacket was pulled close over his face so that I could only see his stubbly chin.

“We should be out on the road by this evening.”

“That’s good news.”

“Shen, I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now, who taught you?” asked Layen as she pulled up even with the Healer.

“What are you on about?” His voice was full of contrived incomprehension.

“Who quickened your spark and helped you master the Gift?”

“And who taught you?” he asked defiantly.

“No one,” she answered immediately. “I didn’t need a teacher.”

“As if I’d believe that,” he grumbled from under his hood. “In Dog Green you showed yourself in all your glory. That kind of skill would be challenging without a proper mentor. I may not have those abilities yet but I, like you, am familiar with the fundamentals. None of the Walkers would be able to master a khilss.”

“You yourself sent a spell through the staff.”

“Don’t confuse an ordinary spark with a Healer’s. Besides, you saw how well that turned out. I hadn’t reckoned on that outcome.”

“I don’t doubt that for a minute.”

“And yet.” Shen would not let it go. “Who was your mentor that you would so easily flirt with Death? It definitely wasn’t one of those who live in the Rainbow Valley. They can’t teach such things.”

“Are you really so sure of this, little boy?”

Against all odds, he didn’t take offense at “little boy.” He only laughed mirthlessly.

“I’m sure. Otherwise you’d be with the Walkers. They’d never neglect such talent, and they’d be even less likely to leave it unsupervised. Tell me, why didn’t you kill that necromancer right away, as soon as he came to see us? I don’t doubt that you could have handled him readily.”

“Don’t overestimate my powers.”

“I’d rather that than underestimate them.” The Healer was still agitated. “I just can’t help but wonder how the Seekers missed you. And how many years you were under the noses of the Imperial mages and escaped their notice.”

“And we’re once again back where we started, Shen. If you’re not hiding, that means the Walkers know about you, and you and them together—that’s unacceptable to us right now. Or are you just as clever as I am, and you’ve been lurking all this time?”

“Nothing’s easier than hiding the spark of a Healer from others. They don’t sense it until I use my Gift.”

“Oh, yes! I can attest to that myself. So that means you’re hiding, right, Shen? You’re self-taught?”

“Something along those lines.”

“Even if it’s not so, we’ll really never find out, isn’t that true?”

“If you won’t talk about yourself, neither will I. In my opinion, it’s all pretty straightforward. Let’s abandon this subject. I for one am not planning on discussing anything.”

“As you wish. I can say one thing—your potential is hardly developed. You flare up and fizzle out right away. Do you know how to do much of anything at all?”

“Look after yourself, Layen. Yourself. I’ll deal with my problems on my own.”

After this conversation, silence reigned for a long time in our little group.

*   *   *

“Do you think this is wise?” said Luk, his voice full of doubt.

Ga-Nor, who looked like a soaked ginger dog because of the rain, tossed his head without turning toward his companion. The guard didn’t know how to take this gesture and so he set about to refresh his companion’s memory.

“They killed two men last night.”

“Perhaps they wouldn’t share. All sorts of things can happen.”

“All sorts?” said Luk, horrified. “Those people just cut down their own comrades, screw a toad! And you expect them to be civil to us?”

“Damned rain. The tracks disappear so quickly.” The Son of the Snow Leopard tugged at his mustache angrily, and then responded to his companion’s indignation, “I’m not planning on facing them. Nor offering my hand in friendship. We’re traveling the same path, that’s all. We’re following in their tracks and not making a sound. That’s all we need to do. I think that even you can manage that.”

“They have an archer. Have you forgotten?”

“Like I’d forget.” Ga-Nor tapped the bandage on his left shoulder. “Make no mistake, the man’s good.”

“It’s too bad they didn’t cut him down, too. I’d feel much calmer if I knew I wasn’t going to get shot at. We’re not going to walk too quickly, right?”