The Dark Glory War (5 page)

I twisted around and settled my back against the rear of the wagon. “I’m fairly certain Rounce would prefer Lindsey’s warm kisses to this cold box.”

“I’ll just carry on bravely, Tarrant, and she’ll reward me for it.”

“Quite so; that’s the spirit.” Leigh’s voice shifted in tone to something a little less warm. “What think you, Nay?”

“Don’t know as what I’m supposed to think.” Nay sniffed twice. “Racing along like this, we’ll be out of the city soon.”

I nodded. The wagon had kept on rather straight, only making the few jogs that High Street did as it headed to the West Gate. This time of night it would run into little if any traffic on the way, and if we were meant to travel out of the city, I had little doubt those taking us would have the authority to speed on through the gate. “If we head west, we’ll be into the forests before much time. Anyone have an idea what they’ll do with us?”

“Dear boy, for us to have any idea of what they will do with us would be for us to be privy to information we’re not supposed to have.” Leigh laughed carelessly. “I couldspeculate about what they might do with us, if you wish.”

I was determined not to give him the satisfaction, but a wheel hit a pothole, jouncing me up and landing me on my backside hard enough to force a quick yip from me.

“Oh, prize to the wolf-yipper. That’s it exactly.”

“Leigh, explain it, if you please, for those of us who aren’t as fluent in wolf as Tarrant is.”

“It is simple, dear Rounce. They will be taking us deep into the wood and will drop us off in some spot from which we will be forced to make our way home. The journey will call upon us to work together to survive, and will demand from us all our survival skills. We’ll have to find food and water, all those things. It will be a fun outing.”

My eyes narrowed. “You knew this very much in advance, didn’t you?”

“Know? No.”

I leaned forward. “If not, why did you choose to wear a coat this evening, one thick enough to keep you warm if we’re a couple of nights out in the woods?”

“Well, I might have guessed a coat would be useful, but not as useful as you think.” Leigh’s hand slapped against the wagon’s wall. “This coach will travel twice as fast as a man c*n walk in an hour, or perhaps three times. I have no innate sense of time …”

“That’s right,” Rounce growled, “which is why you always manage to be late.”

“That notwithstanding, Rounce, the simple fact is that you or Hawkins or even our new friend will likely be able to look at the moon when we are released and can guess how long we have been traveling. At best, I would imagine, we will have eight hours of walking back.”

“Puzzle that out yourself?”

“Indeed I did, Nay.” Leigh snickered in his corner. “And it helped that my father is holding a dinner tomorrow in my favor—ourfavor—and he would not have scheduled it when he did if he expected me to be late. Or later than usual.”

“Don’t like the sound of this at all.” A thundercrack reverberated through the box: Nay’s fist pounding the side. “Should have warned us.”

“Dear friends, did I not suggest you avoid too much wine so as to be clear-headed for this adventure? I did, didn’t I? If I’d not warned you, you’d all be besotted right now.”

“I must have been besotted to be here.” I let a low growl rumble from my throat. “If you’d hinted, Leigh, we could have eaten more. We could have slipped some cheese into our pockets …”

“Stuffed bread up your … shirttails.”

“My, my, rather testy. Be careful, my friends, or I might not lead you back to Valsina.”

“Be going my own way. Don’t need you, Leigh.”

“Will it be the Nay way for you two, as well?”

“I think we should all calm down a bit here. Let’s remember that tines and haft thing, shall we?” Rounce’s words came firm and cut through the growing tension. “If they wanted four of us, presumably there are some challenges out there that require four of us to handle. I know Hawkins, Leigh, and I have spent time in the countryside, out hunting, living off the land. What’s your experience, Nay?”

“Done my time woodcutting.” He fell silent for a moment, then plunged on. “My mother, she makes cures, so I know to harvest some plants and roots and berries.”

“Good, that’s a skill we don’t possess.” Rounce yawned. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve had a long day. Getting to sleep in this wagon may not be easy, but I’ll suggest it. If Leigh’s right, and chances are he is, we’ve a longer day before us tomorrow.”

“Well, I’m all for sleep, gentlemen. Perhaps I’ll dream up a way we can return in style. Wouldn’t that be something?”

I shook my head. “It would, Leigh, but I’ll leave the dreaming to you. I have a feeling this exercise will be rooted more in reality than anything else.”

Though I tried to remain awake during the journey, the day did catch up with me and I drifted off. Just prior to that we had taken a turn that should have put us on a southwesterly jog, and we’d begun to climb into the foothills of Bokagul, but that’s the last thing I remember before the wagon stopped and cool air flooded in through the open doorway.

I rolled off the bench and started down the ramp. Yawning, I nodded at the two men standing in the moonwashed forest road. Given the moon’s position I figured we’d been on the road for the better part of three hours, which put dawn another three hours off.

I flung my arms wide to stretch. One of the cloaked figures drifted forward and gave me a hearty shove in the flank. I stumbled toward the side of the road, intent on remaining on my feet, but I ran out of ground.

I tumbled into a ravine, passing first through a screen of thorny blackberry bushes. I hit on my knees beyond that, snapping some deadfall branches, then began a somersault that bounced and tossed me down the steep hill. Somewhere in all that I clipped a sapling with my right thigh. This started me spinning wildly, caroming me off this tree and that and finally dumping me in the grasp of a lone pine’s gnarled and exposed roots.

I heard more crashing around me and at least one splash. I tried to stand, but my right leg apparently decided it was done for the night, so it collapsed. I slid facefirst down to the stream running through the ravine’s heart. My fingers sank into cold mud, but didn’t sink so far that I got a dunking.

I heard more splashing, and then a laugh. “Just as well you didn’t stuff bread in my coat, as it would be soggy mush right now.”

“A match for your brains, then.”

“Well done, Nay … with your wit, me you may yet slay. Triple rhyme!”

“Rounce, you with us?” I looked around and could see Leigh sitting in a pool and Nay crouched on a rock at the stream’s edge. “Rounce?”

“Here.” From further upslope he made his way down to us. He leaned on trees as he came and held his left arm across his chest. “Anyone else hurt?”

“Just my pride.”

“Likely a mortal wound on you, then.” Nay pitched a small pebble toward Leigh. “Not hurt either.”

I pushed back from the stream and tried to gather my legs beneath me. I was finally able to stand, but the lower part of my right leg still felt a little numb. “I’ll be fine pretty soon. What’s wrong, Rounce?”

“Hit a tree on the way down. I think I broke a rib.”

Nay stood. “Coughing blood?”

“Not so far.”

“Good thing.” Nay walked down toward Rounce, then veered off and snapped a sprig off a low bush. He stripped off all but the newest of the fat, round leaves at the tip, then folded the twig in half until it cracked. He plucked the leaf off and extended both the twig and leaf to Rounce.

“What is it?”

“Fesyin Bane. Broke the twig like the rib. Press them together to draw off the pain. Pulp the leaf and tuck it in your cheek.”

I sniffed. “Smells likemetholanth.”

Rounce accepted the leaf and chewed it, but waved away the broken twig. “The leaf will do.”

Nay lifted his chin. “The twig draws pain.”

Leigh splashed his way over. “I see our big friend is superstitious. Perhaps, Nay, you think I should thank the spirit of this stream for stopping me without injury.”

“Spirits ain’t godlings.” Nay pressed the twig into Rounce’s left hand, then laid it against his ribs. “Broke twig draws pain.”

Rounce looked at me, but I just shrugged. “Can’t hurt.”

Rounce nodded. “It is feeling a bit better.”

Leigh flicked wet hair off his forehead. “Take you into the wildness and you become savages, all of you. Fear not, this way to civilization.”

Rounce fell into step behind him. “Think he knows where he’s going?”

“I don’t know.” I limped into line after him. “He was smart enough to figure out what would happen to us.”

Nay, behind me, tapped me on the shoulder. “Not that smart.”

“Say what?” Leigh glanced back at us. “What makes you think I’m not that smart?”

“Your shoes.”

I laughed and Rounce joined me for a moment before he hissed and grabbed his ribs. “Nay’s right, Leigh. Those shoes aren’t suited to hiking back to Valsina.”

“Perhaps he knows a cure for blistered feet.”

“Suffering.” Nay’s hearty chuckle warmed my heart. “Builds calluses and character.”

“Character? Piffle! I have enough character for—”

An unearthly shriek split the night. The four of us yelped in response, then took off running toward it. Nay and I quickly passed Rounce, but Leigh and Nay drew ahead of me with ease. I kept after them and watched them scramble up a small hill. They silhouetted themselves against the moon, then Nay’s big form reeled to the right and dropped to its knees. I watched his body twitch and his head dip, and I knew he was vomiting.

I reached the crest of the hill and stood beside an unmoving Leigh. Before us, in a small depression in the top of the hill, lay the body of a man. A shredded cloak lay a short way away from him and his bare face stared up at the sky. Without a mask on, there was no way Leigh or I could recognize him. Blood soaked his clothes and the ground, but in the moonlight both it and his clothing took on the same dark burgundy hue.

A sword lay on the ground with its hilt near his right thigh. He could have reached down for it, were he still alive—and if he still had his right arm. He wasn’t and didn’t.

Rounce came up on my right. “Oh, by the gods. He’s dead, isn’t he?”

“Very dead, but the thing that killed him isn’t.” I looked around at my companions. “I think this test of our survival skills just got a lot harder. Chances are real good that tomorrow we’ll be very late for dinner.”

Beinglate for dinner is not my concern.Being dinner is.“ Leigh stooped and picked up the sword. ”Hawkins, get the dagger on his belt. There’s another in his boot for you, Rounce.“

“In a minute, Leigh.” I walked over to Nay and dropped to one knee beside him. He remained down on all fours and twitched when I settled my left hand in the middle of his broad back. “How are you doing?”

He turned his head to look at me and the moon leeched all the warm color from his face. “Hain’t seen someone done like that.”

“Neither have the rest of us.”

He half-laughed and spit. Little ropy lines of mucus dripped slowly down from his mouth to the pine needles covering the ground. “So much for my prayer for courage being granted.”

“I’d not judge Kedyn that harshly. After all, you only took a step or two away and puked. If you didn’t have courage, you might have run screaming.” I got my hand under his right arm. “Ready to get up? Wipe your mouth.”

Nay swiped his sleeve across his mouth, spit twice more, then staggered to his feet. He turned and looked at the corpse and almost heaved again, but managed to keep his gorge down. “Thanks, Hawkins. Be fine now.”

Rounce tossed me the dead man’s belt, complete with an empty scabbard and the sheathed knife. I looped it over my right shoulder. “Are we going to bury him?”

“ ‘Spose we ought to.” Rounce nodded as he slipped the boot dagger into his own boot top. “Leigh?”

Leigh, who had been crouched examining a patch of earth, grabbed the sword’s quillons and levered himself upright. “I don’t think it will matter much since there aren’t that many stones around here. The thing that killed him won’t have trouble digging him back up no matter what we do.”

“You find a track?” I skirted the body and came over to look at the place where the leaves and needles had been scratched back to the bare earth. I squatted and let my fingers trail over the trio of parallel tracks, but I’d never seen anything like them before. “What is it?”

Leigh’s silhouette shifted its shoulder uneasily. “I don’t know for certain, but my father once described something like this.”

“What do you think it is?”

“A temeryx.”

I shot to my feet as a chill rolled down my spine. “A frostclaw this far south? And in summer?”

“I no more like the idea than you, dear Hawkins, but ithas been a chilly summer.” Leigh pointed the sword back toward the body. “Check his back. You’ll find claw marks there, too.”

“But there aren’t any feathers. It can’t be a temeryx.” Leigh shook his head. “Fine, have it your way. It was a rogue bear, one with only three toes on each paw, which snuck up on a man, killed him, bit off an arm, and then ran off before we got here.”

My mind refused to believe a frostclaw could be all the way down in Oriosa—less because it wasn’t possible than because if it were true, the chances of our making it home were growing smaller. Of course, I’d never actually seen one of the beasts, and I was certain the stories told of them made them out to be nastier than they possibly could be, but whatever had killed the man had certainly worked quickly and quietly, in keeping with the descriptions of temeryces.

Nay toed the dead man’s booted foot. “What was he doing out here?”

“He’s dressed in red, like the watchers from the gala.” Rounce picked up the man’s cloak and fastened it about his own neck. “Perhaps they sent him out here to watch us and report back.”

“Makes sense to me.” I shifted the belt around and fastened it about my waist. “If it returns for more of its kill, I think I want to be far away from here.”

Rounce frowned. “We can’t just leave his body for that thing to eat.”

Nay snorted. “Not liking the idea of carrying a frostclaw’s dinner with us. And that cloak has blood on it.”