The Dark Glory War (7 page)

“Did get a fair piece of it.” Nay chuckled lightly. “Next time mayhap I’ll have something stouter than a piece of dead-wood.”

“You’re looking forward to a next time?”

“Nope, but no reason to assume there won’t be one.”

I pondered that point in silence as we continued on. Nay never let me drag the sled, but I did take the back end of it to lift up as we forded streams. The water got no deeper than our knees, so keeping Rounce dry wasn’t a problem. The water was cold, however, so we needed the exertions of the walk to keep us warm.

By dawn, with the sun flooding bloody light into the eastern sky, we’d made it about three miles toward Valsina. Rounce hadn’t awakened and that concerned me, but Nay said it was the Fesyin Bane poultices that were keeping him asleep. Given how much pain he’d be in if he was awake, sleeping was best, but the dawn revealed a greyish pallor to his flesh and he was feverish. Nay soaked some moss in a stream, wrapped it in a sleeve from Leigh’s coat, then placed it on Rounce’s forehead to cool him off.

We got another couple of miles before the rescuers found us. Some were on horseback, but most were on foot, and had come west along the road the wagon had used to deliver us into the forest. Leigh had tied his shirt around a tree at the side of the logging road where his path cut across it, then had continued cross-country to cut distance off his trek. The rescuers had brought several wagons with them, which waited on the road, to carry the searchers out to us and, presumably, to carry us back. They also had brought along a string of spare horses.

One of Lord Norrington’s huntsmen, dressed all in green leathers, found us first. He blew a blast on the small brass horn he wore on his right hip, then shucked off a pack and drew out a silver flask. He offered it to me, and I sniffed it first before I drank. I drank sparingly, but gladly let the brandy burn its way to my belly.

I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand, then gave the flask to Nay. “It’s brandy.”

Nay tipped the flask back and took a long pull on it, then his eyes bugged out. Bringing his head forward he swallowed, then coughed a couple of times and swiped at the tears streaming from his eyes. He fixed me with a green glare and whispered hoarsely, “You meant it wasreal brandy.”

“I did.”

He looked away from me and toward the east as hoofbeats drummed loudly. A magnificent black stallion crested the hill, spraying dirt and rusty pine needles about as he dug his forehooves into the ground. The bridle and saddle were black leather chased with silver, likewise the saddlebow-scabbard and quiver at the horse’s left shoulder.

Astride the horse’s back sat a tall, lean man with a piercing brown gaze. He wore a hood of green leather that matched the verdant suede of his personal mask. Ribbons adorned the mask and temeryx claws hooked down from above the eyeholes as if they were eyebrows. His mouth was set in a grim, thin-lipped line and he intently studied the two of us, tattered and tired and sweat-soaked.

I immediately dropped to a knee and bowed my head. I glanced at Nay, then flicked my left hand at him, directing him to follow my lead. Nay did, and keeping my head down, I waited for the man to address us.

The saddle leather creaked as the man dismounted. His horse snorted and shook his head, jingling the tack. Sticks cracked beneath the man’s booted feet, then he stopped before me and I felt his gloved hands on my shoulders. “Rise, Tarrant Hawkins. Today there is no reason for you to be on bended knee before me.”

“My Lord Norrington is too kind.” I slowly rose, then stepped back and rested my left hand on Nay’s shoulder. “This is Naysmith Carver.”

“Rise, Naysmith Carver. You have both done great things here.”

I shook my head. “No greater than what Leigh … Bosleigh did in summoning help. His run—”

Lord Norrington held a finger up to silence me. “I know very well what my son did, and of him I am very proud, but the two of you … My son tells me that you attacked a temeryx armed only with a stick and a dagger. And in the dark, no less.”

Nay shifted his feet nervously. “Had it been light, my lord, it might have been different.”

“I have found, Master Carver, there are few men who brave horrors at night who will then run from the same in daylight.” He turned and gathered up his horse’s reins. “You two will come with me. We have horses for you, or you can ride in the cart, as you will. We even have a large horse for you, Master Carver.”

Nay frowned. “But Rounce …”

Norrington turned and smiled. “My people will take care of him. Sandes!”

The huntsman who found us looked up from where he knelt next to Rounce. “Yes, my lord?”

“Convey Master Playfair to the cart. Abandon the sled, but bring the pelt and the other bits they took from it. We’ll need that.”

“As you command, my lord.”

Other huntsmen who had been summoned by the horn came running up to where we were. Nay shrugged himself out of the harness and came up on my left, placing me between himself and Leigh’s father. I had known Lord Norrington since I was too young to clearly remember anything. I knew him as Leigh’s father and my father’s master, and my father was inclined toward strict formality where Lord Norrington was concerned. Lord Norrington was a bit more forgiving on that count. While his invitation to walk with him didn’t surprise me, the fact that he did not mount up and treat us as the moonmasked youths we were did seem out of the ordinary. Even so, his voice came warm and familiar when he spoke to us, as if we were his friends rather than friends of his son.

“The pelt you have there, the feathers are sable. I’ve heard it said they can be that way, but n’er have I seen it.” He stroked the point of his chin with his left hand. “Could be it’s a fledgling, but the pelt is full-sized. Or, perhaps, they molt into a summer plumage, then again into their white for winter.”

I nodded my head. “I suppose it could be, my lord.”

Norrington threw his head back and laughed. “Very good, Hawkins, don’t offer an opinion if you don’t have one. Your father has taught you well. And you, Master Carver?”

“Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt, my lord.”

“Listen to me, boys …” Norrington paused and shook his head, then lowered his voice. “Here I call you boys when you are clearly men. Forgive me and hear me: what you have done here is rare, very rare. I know of perhaps a score of men who have been involved in a temeryx kill—your father among them, young Hawkins. I’ve killed a half-dozen myself, most with a bow. I got one with a lance from horseback—I wear its claws in this hunting mask. Another I took with a spear, on foot, but I will tell you now I only did it because my horse had broken its leg and I was reduced to walking against my will.”

He watched us both carefully as the import of his words sank in. “There will be men who seek to devalue what you have done, to say you are mistaken, or that you have lied. ‘Exaggerated,’ they will call your exploit. These are petty men and ones to stay well away from. Others—true men like your father, like others in Valsina—they will know your hearts from this act. So, no matter what you hear, do not doubt yourselves. A day into your Moon Month you have displayed more about yourselves than others could in a century.”

Nay cleared his throat with a low rumble. “Thank you much for your kindness, Lord Norrington, but making too much of this ain’t right. We did what we had to. No thinking on it. No knowing how much it might pain us. Now, Leigh, he knew his task. He took it on himself to save us.”

“Again, I know what my son did.”

“How is Leigh?”

“You can see for yourselves.” Norrington smiled. He pointed off across a small valley to the logging road and the trio of wagons that had been brought up. “He’s in the first wagon. He insisted on bringing us back here. Go on, he’ll be glad to see you.”

Nay and I took off running, passing a pair of magickers heading off in the other direction toward Rounce. We scrambled up the hill, then along the road to the rear of the wagon. It had a boxy bed with wooden sides two feet high and a canvas covering over a wooden framework that rose six feet above the bed. Reaching the endboard, we pulled back the flaps and found Leigh.

He was seated on a half-dozen pillows that propped him up in a sitting position. He looked tired and had a red welt on his right cheek where it looked as if a thorny bush had raked his face. Similar welts crisscrossed his hands and his shins, which had long since been stripped of stockings. His feet had been swathed in white cloth, some of which had pink patches showing—mostly on the heel and along the sole.

He smiled at us. “When I heard the horn, one blast, I knew they’d found you. And this close to the road, I knew you had to be alive. Rounce?”

“Alive as well. Your father’s people are bringing him in. Magickers were going to him as we came along.”

“Good. I told them what you’d done with themetholanth and they said that was probably as good as you could have done, given the circumstances.” Leigh shrugged. “They dabbed some tincture of it on my feet, too.”

Nay smiled. “Told you them shoes weren’t right.”

“Oh, and the shoes quite agreed with you, Nay. They came apart a mile or so east of here.” He barked a quick laugh. “I paid for them with moongold, so I suppose I cannot complain. Perhaps a temeryx will snap them up and choke on them.”

I laughed aloud. “I don’t think that’s very likely, do you? They’ll long since have decayed before another frostclaw is found in these parts.”

Leigh shook his head. “My father didn’t tell you?”

“Tell us what?” I looked at Nay and he stared blankly back at me. “What was he supposed to tell us?”

“My good fellows, you don’t imagine my father brought all these huntsmen out just to find you, do you?” He waggled a finger at us. “No, no, no! It seems that frostclaws hunt in packs. Where you find one, you find at least three more. No, my friends, we’re here with the huntsmen to find the other frostclaws and kill them. The fun we had last night, it was just the prelude, and we are in this little opera until the very last note is sung.”

[Tj he hunters returned to the wagons along with Rounce. One I of the magickers got into the wagon where they placed 1 Rounce, then it was turned and sent back to Valsina with four outriders. The rest of us piled into the other two wag-•with Nay and me riding with Leigh. We all set off along on the road to the point where we’d been dropped off.

I got a little sleep during that run, then woke up when the wagons stopped at our drop-off point. Two other wagons and more riders had been sent ahead and were waiting for us. Nay and I left our wagon and accompanied the others to the site of the first kill. Of the watcher who had died on the hilltop we could find only his tattered cloak. The huntsmen located a couple of other bare patches of earth that yielded temeryx prints, including one with only two claws, indicating an animal that had been injured.

Sandes looked up from that particular track and nodded. “There certainly was more than one. The others tracked the first beast here to its kill and took the food away.”

Lord Norrington stroked his chin. “Can you tell how many?”

“At least two is my guess, possibly twice that number.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but said nothing since the hunters’ muttered musings sounded dour and grim. Nay and I then led them to the site of the second attack and our kill. We found its body where we’d left it, though something had been worrying it. Sandes asked if Lord Norrington wanted him to further butcher the animal for food, but Leigh’s father demurred.

“We’ve provisions enough, and I don’t want too much confusion when we seek out the rest of the pack. Later we will have more and fresher meat.”

We all hiked back to the wagons and discovered that some of the hunters had crossed the road to the side away from the ravine and, in a fairly level spot, had set up camp. They had three fires burning and had pitched several tents, including a fairly large one with a central pavilion and a couple of smaller tents coming off it like spokes from a hub. As we came into the clearing, Leigh emerged from the large tent, walking rather gingerly, but smiling nonetheless.

In our absence he had changed from the tattered clothes he’d worn previously to a set of green hunting leathers. The stark white of his moonmask contrasted sharply with the deep green of the leathers. He wore a sword and dagger on a belt around his waist, and his feet had been clad in soft leather boots that laced up the front and had a fringe around the top. A folded pair of gloves hung from his belt.

“Welcome back to our home away from home.” He waved a hand at the large tent. “You’ve each been given one of the wings here—Hawkins to the right, Nay to the left. There is a change of clothes for each of you.”

Nay covered a yawn with the back of his left hand. “Night-clothes would suit right now.”

Lord Norrington came up from behind and clapped both of us on the shoulders. “Yes, please, get some more rest. Three hours until noon, then we will be hunting.”

I had to pass through the main tent to reach my little tent, and I could not help but be impressed with what I saw. A series of carpets had been overlapped to form the floor. Many had intricate designs on them—the sort of thing that came from Naliserro or Savarre—and the rest were plain. All were well worn. A long dining table complete with twelve chairs had been set up, but I noticed that all of them could be taken apart and broken down for easy storage and transport. An easel dominated one corner, and on it had been placed a board to which had been tacked a map of the area, with small pins stuck into it at the sites of the kills.

The rather stark nature of the furnishings both did and did not surprise me. I knew, from having been at Norrington Manor, that Lord Norrington could afford the finest furnishings from anywhere in the world, so the simplicity and pure utility of these pieces suggested a tightfistedness on his part that I knew wasn’t true. By the same token, in the field, these furnishings were exactly what he needed. While he was a man who could enjoy the finer things of life, he let various situations dictate what he demanded.

My little tent was very simply appointed, with a carpet rolled over the ground and three thick blankets folded on top of a small chest that I assumed held my new clothes. I pulled off my party costume and wrapped myself in one of the blankets. I used the other two to form a pillow, and despite it being mid-morning, I dropped immediately into a dreamless sleep.