Ghostwalker (Book 1) (22 page)

She reached down and pulled off one of his damp gloves, then took his hand in her own.

It was chilled as well, drained of any warmth.

The wind rustled though the trees again, causing Jade to shiver herself. She looked back into the woods around her, searching for any sign of Joseph.

The man was nowhere to be seen.

Her gaze fell back again on Kendril’s pallid face, and she touched it lightly with her fingers.

The icy touch of his skin scared her. The fire didn’t seem to be warming him at all, even though she had put him as close to it as she dared. But what else could she do?

She looked around the campsite one more time, but the night offered no solutions.

Jade glanced down at Kendril again, and felt her heart skip just a bit faster. She lifted the edge of his blanket and slid her body next to his. Moving as slowly and carefully as she could, Jade pressed herself against him. She reached her arm across the top of his chest, then rested her head on his shoulder. She was careful not to touch the bandage anywhere near his left side, and kept her body as still as possible.

This close she could feel him trembling, and she shivered as well against his damp clothing. She continued to hold him tightly, however, thankful for the heavy weight of the blanket over both of them. A dull fear clung to her at what would happen if he were to suddenly awaken, but there was no movement from him at all. Even his breathing was shallow and uneven.

Only a few minutes
, she told herself as she moved her arm up slowly to rest against his neck.

Just until he stops shivering, anyway
…

She stayed there for what seemed like a long while, with Kendril shuddering next to her and the fire popping and sputtering beside them. Finally, his shivering seemed to lessen slightly. Then, as Jade closed her eyes, she thought she felt it drop to an occasional shudder.

Jade drowsily considered checking his face again to see how cold he was, but she couldn’t seem to summon up the energy to move her arm. She was so warm and so comfortable that she didn’t even want to move.

She would rest for just one more minute, she thought sleepily.

Just one more minute….

Montrose was livid.

He had been outsmarted before, certainly, and he had had his share of bad luck in the past, but nothing compared to this. How could so much go so wrong in such a short period of time? It was as if Regnuthu himself were dogging his every step.

He turned, kicking the door of the old mill beside him in pure frustration. It clattered on its hinges, banging back and forth.

“I’m sorry, boss,” said Calham again, his face red with embarrassment. He and Derik were both bootless, their bare feet red from the cold. “He took me by surprise. I didn’t—”

“Shut up. Just
shut up
.” Montrose gave a long, heavy sigh, then closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had underestimated the girl’s second companion. The man had gotten the drop on both his men, then had thrown their boots and weapons into the river. To make matters worse, Calham’s horse was gone as well.

Morons. Complete and total morons.

Uther fidgeted nervously beside his employer. “What now, boss?”

“I said
shut up
,” Montrose snarled. “I’m thinking.”

The group was silent a moment as Montrose chewed his lip and stared at the road leading over the bridge.

“We need weapons,” he said at last. “And horses. That’s our first step. Calham, you and Derik take the horses and go back to the Outpost. There’s a blacksmith there, and we should be able to get a few decent swords. If anyone asks any questions, tell them you’re just a couple of trappers getting some supplies.”

“But what about me?” whined Derik as he shifted his weight off his leg. “I don’t know how far I can ride with this bone all busted up.”

“You’re staying at the Outpost,” Montrose ordered. He pulled out his pipe and tapped it thoughtfully in his hand. “Sorry, Derik, but you’re no good to us the way you are. Hole up somewhere out of sight and we’ll pick you up when this whole business is through. No one in town has seen you or Calham, so both of you should be just fine, as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

“So what do I do after I get the weapons?” asked Calham.

Montrose reached into his pocket and pulled out some tobacco, then began filling his pipe with it. “Weapons and a
horse
,” he corrected, “or else one of us will be walking. When you get everything we need, meet us back here, at the bridge. If you’re fast enough you might even be able to get back here before mid-morning.” He looked up at the stars twinkling brightly overhead. “Then we pick up their trail again.”

“With only three men?” Uther asked doubtfully.

The bounty hunter turned, his eye like a blazing coal. “Let me make something clear to you, Uther, and to all of you,” he added, looking at the other three men. “I have never failed to fill a contract, and I don’t intend to start now. We’re going to get this girl, if it’s the last thing we do.”

Uther shuffled uneasily. “They’ll have at least a half-day’s start on us.”

“Not if they take the Ghostwalker with them,” said Montrose. He lit his pipe. “That will slow them to a crawl. It’s at least another two days’ journey to the edge of the forest, and the nearest town isn’t for a ways after that.” He puffed on the pipe. The embers glowed in the darkness. “We’ll cut them off before they get out of these woods.”

“How?” asked Calham.

Montrose’s face darkened. He drew a long draught on his pipe, then blew out a stream of smoke.

“We make a deal with the devil.”

Jade slowly opened her eyes. The sound of chirping birds filling her ears. She lifted her head and blinked in the morning sunlight.

Sunlight?

Startled, she looked down to see Kendril still beside her, his eyes closed and his breath shallow.

She had fallen asleep next to him.

Embarrassed, Jade got to her feet and pulled the blanket back over the wounded man. She looked up and noticed Joseph sitting on a log by the fire, reading a small leather-bound book. A steaming tin cup of coffee was on the ground by his feet.

“Good morning,” he said without looking up from his book. “Coffee’s on the fire, if you want some. Sleep well?”

Jade shuffled over to the fire, and sat down on a log across from Joseph. “Yes, just fine.” She reached down towards the simmering pot of coffee, and snatched an empty mug from an open pack near Joseph’s feet.

The man looked over at her. “You didn’t tell me last night about you and the Ghostwalker. For someone you just met a few days ago, you two seem to be awfully close.”

Jade felt her face flush. “It’s not what you think,” she said quickly, holding the coffee pot in one hand and the mug in the other. “He was shivering last night. I was just trying to warm him, that’s all. I guess I fell asleep.” She looked over Kendril, and her voice dropped. “He can’t touch me anyway…it’s some vow he’s taken. And I don’t
really
know him, after all. I--” She stopped, realizing she was rambling. Turning her head back, she poured some coffee into the mug. “I was just trying to stop his shivering.”

Joseph nodded and glanced over at the Ghostwalker. When he looked back at Jade, his eyes were kinder than before.

“I’ll check his wound in a few minutes. Hopefully the stitches are holding.” He reached down with his free hand, and took a sip of his coffee.

Jade set the coffee pot back down on the grass. “I would be surprised if they weren’t. You seemed to know what you were doing.” She looked over her shoulder at the gray woods behind her. “Were you out all night?”

Joseph chuckled. “Just about. Your bounty hunter has three companions, one with a broken leg. When I left them about an hour ago two of them had ridden off to the west. The two we met last night are holing up near the bridge.”

She stared at him in amazement. “You got that close to them?”

The man shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard. They weren’t really trying to stay hidden, and the bridge is right out in the open. Anyway, when I last left them they had no horses, and were still tending to their wounds. I doubt we’ll be seeing them for at least an hour or two.”

Jade took a sip of coffee. It was scalding, and she burnt the tip of her tongue. She gave Joseph an inquisitive look. “What are you reading?”

He let the book fall shut. “The Blessed Scriptures. The Book of Jervis, chapter seven, to be precise.”

A bird sang cheerfully overhead. Jade tried another sip of the coffee. “What is it about?”

“The repentance and conversion of Tuldor Swiftblade, King of—”

“Grengaard,” said Jade suddenly. “Right before the Second Age of Despair. That was over a thousand years ago.”

“Well,” said Joseph with a kindly smile, “you seem to know your Scriptures fairly well.”

Jade took another sip of the coffee and scooted closer to the fire. “I guess I do.” She looked over at the bearded man across from her. “I seem to remember strange things, at odd moments. I don’t really know why, or what it all means. It’s very frustrating. I feel like I am on the verge of remembering so much, but my mind is still clouded over.”

Joseph put the book back in a pocket of his greatcoat. “Give it time,” he said gently. “All things heal with enough time.”

“I hope you’re right.” She sighed, holding the warm mug with both hands. For a moment there was only the crackling of the fire and the chirping of birds overhead. She looked over at Joseph again. “All that stuff in the Scriptures is a myth, right? There wasn’t really ever an Age of Despair, was there?”

Joseph shrugged, scratching his beard. “I guess that depends on who you ask. A lot of people think it’s all nonsense. Of course, most people don’t really believe in Regnuthu anymore, or else they just see him as a symbolic embodiment of evil or adversity, or some other such thing.” He smiled. “Of course, a lot of people don’t even believe in Eru anymore, either.”

She looked at him curiously. “What do
you
believe?”

He took another sip of his coffee, staring at the fire. “I think the Scriptures are right,” he said quietly. “I think things are a lot different than the way most people see them.”

Jade looked down at her mug, then back at Joseph. “You must be a pretty religious man,” she said.

“You could say that,” said Joseph with a soft laugh. “Actually, I trained for several years in Kendrake for the priesthood.”

Jade raised her eyebrows. “You’re a priest?”

Joseph threw the rest of his coffee into the fire, where it sputtered and smoked. “Not exactly. I was never ordained.”

“So what do you do?”

Joseph reached into the pack, pulled out some bread and, to Jade’s intense delight, cheese. “Oh, odd jobs here and there. I mostly work as a freelance scout for armies when there’s a war on, and as a tracker and guide for caravans and merchants when there’s not.” He tore the loaf in half and tossed part of it to Jade. “I also do some trapping and trading, when the pathfinding work gets a little slow.”

The bread was stale, but Jade was ravenously hungry. She dug in. “You seem to know your way around the woods.”

The man shrugged, and took a bite himself. “I love being in the wild. Always have, really. There’s something very comforting about it.” He gestured to the coffee pot. “I think I threw out that coffee too soon. Can you hand the pot over?”

She smiled, passing him the pot. “The bread tastes fine to me.”

Joseph took it with a nod. “There’s some cheese if you want.” He whipped out the knife from his boot, and cut off a large chunk, then offered it to Jade.

She looked at the dagger hesitantly.

He laughed. “I washed it off last night in the river, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Jade took the cheese with a grin. “Thanks.” She glanced over again at Kendril. “When do you think he’ll come to?”

Joseph poured himself some coffee. “I don’t know. Could be a couple hours, or a couple days. Or—” he stopped mid-sentence, as if remembering himself.

“Or,” Jade finished soberly, “he might not wake up at all. Is that what you were going to say?”

The bearded man was silent a moment. He looked over at the fallen Ghostwalker. “He seems like a tough sort. My bet is that he’ll pull through.” He took a sip of the coffee, then lifted his head. “I almost forgot. You don’t happen to know a man in a purple cape, do you? Dressed like a nobleman?”

Her face lit up. “That’s Maklavir, the man I met in the Outpost! Have you seen him?”

“I saw someone wandering around the woods to the north, leading two horses and a mule. He didn’t exactly look like any of the local trappers. I think he was going in circles when I left him.”

Jade gave a relieved laugh. “That would be Maklavir,” she said. “Do you think you could find him again?”

Joseph grinned. “I don’t think finding him would be very hard.” He put down the coffee cup, and looked over at Kendril again. “Moving
him
is going to be the hard part.”

She followed his gaze. “I hadn’t thought about that. What do you suggest?”

“Well,” he said slowly, “the Outpost is our best bet. It’s only about a day from here, and there’s an inn we could stay at. But that bounty hunter of yours is at the bridge right now, and the only other crossing is quite a ways to the south.” He shook his head. “If we went the long way it would take us two or three days to get back to the Outpost. Might even be better just to head east. It would take about the same amount of time.”

Jade gave a miserable shake of her head. “We were already at the Outpost. The bounty hunter and his gang burned down the inn trying to get to me.”

The scout gave her an astonished look. “Burned it down!? Were you inside at the time?”

“Kendril was.” Jade looked down forlornly at her bread. “He held the bounty hunter and his men off while Maklavir and I escaped.”

“Sounds courageous. Crazy, but courageous.” Joseph scratched his ear. “Ghostwalkers are a strange lot, from what little I’ve known of them. A lot of priests I knew back in seminary seemed to think them a kind of cult, and a dangerous one at that.”