Doublesight (24 page)

When the earth flattened out, she announced that they'd rest and have lunch. She suggested they rotate the horses and Raik volunteered to swap with Lankor first. “I noticed it struggling on some of the slopes,” he said.

“Grab some food. We'll rest for a short time and go on.” She removed a large piece of bread and a pouch of blueberries from her pack and sat on a log. She saw Lankor drag a piece of dried, unrecognizable meat the size of his fist from his pack. He ripped a piece of meat off with his teeth. Raik and Brok both had meat as well, only Brok had bread with his.

Raik sat on the ground cross-legged, and Lankor plopped next to him. Brok leaned against a tree. “We appear safe so far,” Zimp said. She glanced around expecting Therin to rush from between two trees at any minute.

“Safe,” Brok said. “We're being followed. For the last hour.”

“Therin?” Zimp said.

“He's keeping an eye on them,” Brok said.

“Are they close enough to hear us?” Zimp said.

“No. Far enough away that we can't hear them, I'd say.” Brok crouched down.

Zimp noticed that Lankor stiffened up with the news. “Do you suppose they have any idea?”

“Not at all,” Brok said.

A few birds flitted into a bush at the edge of their small circle, then flew back into the woods. The birds startled Lankor.

“You've got to calm down and not look so ready to fight,” Zimp said.

“Again you ridicule me,” Lankor said.

“Might I make another suggestion?” Brok said.

Zimp cocked her head toward him. “What?”

Brok laughed and stood up. “You know, I'd be happy to follow you through the woods if you acted more like a leader. And, so you know, giving orders is not leading.”

“I thought you had something to suggest. Is that it? You suggest that my authority is lacking?” Zimp said.

“I am the oldest man here,” he suggested. “I slept under your wagon to protect you and Oronice. And now you're in charge?”

Before Zimp could answer Brok, Raik said, “Anyone concerned about our followers?”

“Good thinking,” Lankor said.

“We don't act like four friends who are traveling together,” Brok said. “So, for the captain's information, I suggest that we talk more.” He glared at Zimp. “Maybe we could laugh and banter like we care about each other. They can't hear us at the moment, but they'll get braver. When they do, the last thing we need them to find out is that we hardly know one another, that we don't talk like we're friends. Right now we're traveling as though we're on a mission.”

Zimp felt the blood rush to her face. Silently, she called on Zora. Had she been with her clan, she could ask Oro what to do. She looked from face to face and didn't recognize any of them. She knew little about Brok and she had witnessed one of his most sacred moments. She lifted her head and closed her eyes for a moment, blocking their faces from her vision. She took a deep breath of the forest air, earthy and clean. “You have thought this over and you're right.” She would let Brok have his alpha male moment in the hopes that it would defuse his anger, and with the further hope that it did not fuel the anger of Raik or Lankor.

“What's that mean?” Lankor said.

“That we should talk and laugh as we ride. We need to look and feel as though we are out to see the land.” She stood and walked over to Brok. She placed a hand on his shoulder and shook it, then patted it heartily. “We should be friends.”

Brok bowed his head and offered Zimp a piece of his lunch.

She declined, holding up her bread.

Raik laughed at them. “Keep that up and it will be funny, not familiar.”

“Not much longer and we will get to a hollow where the mountains merge. We can follow that north and down toward Torturous Road,” Zimp said.

“You've been through here before?” Brok asked.

“We are a traveling clan,” she said. She stepped close to him. “Is Therin going to be all right out there?”

“He will.”

“Do you think it'll appear strange having him in camp with us if we're being followed?”

Brok reached up and rubbed her back between her shoulder blades. Zimp tightened as he touched her.

“Just being friendly,” he said. “And to answer your question, I don't know how it will look. Humans do keep animals around, but a thylacine isn't usually domesticated. Raik's family guessed right off that things were strange with us.”

“We don't have much choice. We can't banish him.” She thought for a moment and mounted her horse. “Will he be safe if we treat him like a pet we all share?”

“We can try,” Brok said.

“Comforting.” She pointed into the woods. “You lead.”

Brok rode between trees and she followed. Behind her rode Lankor, and then Raik in the rear. Recalling Zora's most recent warning, she felt safe with Brok in the lead.

The path widened as they dropped into the hollow. Zimp heard the rush of water a short distance to their right. In places, the path they took opened to the stony bank near the creek. They began to ride side-by-side, intensifying the need for them to act friendly in one another's presence. She rode next to Brok. “So, tell me a funny story, something that will make me laugh and act like we've know each other for a long time.”

“Just talking will be fine. At least for now. If they get any closer this kind of talk has got to stop. They'll know we're unfamiliar with each other,” he said.

“Well, that's because you just said so. If we continue to talk about our unfamiliarity, how will we become familiar?”

“What changes if we know each other better? Do we feel more sorry if one should die?” Brok said.

“You don't trust me,” Zimp said.

“You helped me, Therin, and Breel a lot. And I appreciate that. I took an oath to the council, and I have to abide by that. But I don't have to believe that you're the right choice to lead us anywhere but into danger. You haven't shown me anything that would make me want to trust your knowledge of our situation.”

“Fair enough,” Zimp said. “Perhaps it's time that I show what I do know.”

Brok looked at her in shock. His face softened after a moment. “I felt that,” he said.

It was Zimp's turn to look confused until she heard Zora say, “As well he should.”

There were things in The Great Land, Zimp realized, that even she didn't understand. The strength of Zora, even in the next life, was greater than Zimp had understood. Had something happened between them during the dance? She thanked her sister for whatever she had done.

The roar of the creek made it difficult to speak unless they yelled. Zimp heard the unrecognizable discussion that Raik and Lankor were having, but added very little to the noise by speaking with Brok except to say that they should cross the creek before going too much farther.

Brok halted his horse and when Zimp sidled up next to him, he leaned over toward her. “I haven't seen Therin for a while, only his footprints.”

“Will he know to cross?”

“He'll double back and track us once he sees where we are,” Brok said.

“There is something else bothering you,” she said.

“Fewer birds. Fewer squirrels. I know it's loud sometimes, but that's not enough to cause the scarcity.” Brok nodded as the other two got near.

“Are we crossing, my friend?” Lankor bellowed.

“You two enjoying yourselves back there?” Zimp said.

Lankor turned his shoulder toward her and bent at the waist in a respectful bow. “That we are,” he said.

“Do you recall a place to cross?” Brok asked.

“It was many years ago,” Zimp said.

Raik leaned in to listen, then sat back in his saddle. “While we were back there,” he said, pointing up the hill, “I noticed a place just ahead where the land appeared to level out and almost ascend again. There should be a place there to cross. We might find a small pool.”

“Good job,” Brok said. “We'll ride on, then.”

Zimp glanced at him and nodded her head.

“I'm glad you approve,” Brok said.

Zimp turned back to Raik and Lankor. “Watch what you talk about.”

“We know.” Raik winked at her and a chill ran up her back.

Zimp would have liked to be in the top of a tree where she could feel safe and where she could see the farthest. Although she loved the forest as much as the plains, she wasn't as used to noticing the wildlife as Brok appeared to be. One thing she did notice, though, was anything that sparkled, and at one point just before coming to the pool that Raik predicted, Zimp saw several glints of sun against metal.

At the mouth of the pool, Brok walked his horse into the water and continued until the water rose to belly-deep on the beast. Zimp was next. Halfway across she checked on Lankor, who appeared to be having no trouble. Raik followed closely behind, almost pushing Lankor's horse into the water. Brok's mount stepped onto the shore at the opposite side and Zimp came up beside him. She turned and recognized Therin as he lept into the pool and swam behind the horses for a short while before overtaking them. He made it to shore before Raik could push behind Lankor.

Brok jumped from his mount and leaned to greet his brother.

Therin shook his fur out and Brok backed away. Grabbing the saddle horn, Brok swung back into the saddle. “We'd better go quickly,” he said. “Therin's nervous.”

“We'll need to stop soon,” Lankor said.

Zimp didn't know what to do, but felt she couldn't ignore the problem. She looked to Brok, then thought better of it. Brok wouldn't
like it, but she turned to Raik. “Well, Flandean Guard, any suggestions?” The moment she said the words, she felt as though she were back in control of the situation. She didn't need to know what to do all of the time, but she did need to know who best to turn to.

Raik smiled. “Pull farther into the forest and away from the noise of the water. Then get off the path and travel through the thickest underbrush you think the horses can handle. They'll have to fall back because of the noise they'll produce. If we can find the smallest clearing within the thickest brush, we'll be able to hear them coming. One guard should be enough for the night.”

“Brilliant,” Lankor said.

Zimp nodded. “Very good.” She motioned for Brok to lead on.

26

RACOONS, OPOSSUMS, OWLS, ALL CHATTERED and hooted and moved in the forest at night. Other animals, like thylacines and bears, roamed the area. Nocturnal, scuffling, mating, hunting. Lankor listened to the magical voices of the forest as he relaxed against a tree in the deep chill of night out of reach of the fire's glow. He had never heard so much going on. He wondered if any of the sounds were the night play of doublesight.

What made one footfall and snap he heard strike an unnatural cord had little to do with the sound itself. All types of noises rose and fell around him. The trigger was that the other forest noises silenced. Lankor knew an attack was inevitable. The pursuers were on them. He threw a pebble at Raik's prone body and hit him in the chest.

Raik awoke and rolled onto his stomach in slow motion, reached out, and touched both Brok and Zimp on the face. Each of their bodies tightened. Each person found and grasped a weapon, ready for any signal.

Lankor waited. He knew that his bulk would create a strain on the ground around him. From his vantage point, Lankor watched as Raik rolled from and puffed up his blanket to look like someone still slept there. In a moment, the job completed, Raik crawled away, not on his knees, but on toes and hands, curving into the underbrush like a snake. He was one doublesight that embodied his beast image even as human. Lankor vowed to remember that fact.

When a bush shuddered on the opposite side of the fire, Lankor heard someone call out in pain then heard the quiet thump of a body going down.

Brok and Zimp slipped from their rolls and crouched ready to fight, each holding a blade.

The attackers charged. There were only seven of them, and they were on Zimp and Brok in a moment, leaping over the last scrub between them and the two doublesight. Lankor waited to see what position the dusty attackers would take. One man in dark green and bright jewelry fell instantly, for as he hit ground in the clearing, Zimp sprang toward him, blade extended low and into the man's abdomen. Brok used the power evident in the charge of another man by grabbing an arm and pulling the man into the fire. An animal fur vest burst into flames.

The bandit screamed and rolled out of the flames scattering glowing coals. He had removed his vest and begun to rise, when Lankor's staff slammed into the back of his neck and lowered him again, knocking him out with one blow.

Lankor stood to see another man go down under Raik's sword. The remaining four men looked surprised when Lankor emerged from the brush. His heavy staff dropped another one who stood ready to stab Zimp from the side.

Zimp didn't miss the opportunity to catch another attacker by surprise and twirled in the air, reaching at the right moment with her scabbard to slice the man's throat. When Lankor turned, Brok had already taken the other two down.

In the half-light, the four of them stood with arms relaxed next to their sides. Raik slashed some of the brush away with his sword and walked into the clearing. Therin leaped near his brother and skidded on the slippery moss and pine needle floor, late for the fight.

Zimp pointed at Therin and said to Brok, “Would he know if there are more? Could he tell you?”

Therin lay down near his brother's feet.

“It appears to be safe,” Brok said.

The man who Brok dragged into the fire moaned. Lankor walked over and grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and pulled him to a sitting position. The others gathered around.

Zimp leaned down in front of the dazed man. She reached up and slid several chains from the man's shirt. She lifted his wrist and on it were five bracelets. The man had a ring in his ear and two piercings
in the flesh between his thumb and forefinger of his right hand. “Bandits of the worst kind,” she said. “They don't steal. They kill and then scavenge.”

“We're not even on Torturous Road,” Brok said. “Is this what we have to look forward to?”

“These piercings on his hand mean something,” Zimp said.

The man opened his eyes. He looked young to Lankor. “That is my killings, missy. You could be three.”