Volcrian's Hunt (The Cat's Eye Chronicles) (32 page)

“Well?” Laina asked impatiently. Sora was brought back to the present. Her friends were waiting. She swallowed, trying to hide her confusion.

“I remember the ocean,” she repeated, then got to her feet, shouldering her staff. “We can follow the river. Let's hurry. There's no time to waste.” She sounded tense, even to her own ears.

Burn frowned at her, but stood anyway, pulling up Laina beside him. “I'll lead for now,” he said, a tactful way of taking charge. If he wondered about her hesitation, he didn't voice it aloud. He turned toward the river and started cutting back the underbrush. As he made headway, Laina followed at a safe distance.

Sora waited while the path was cleared. Crash caught her eye from across their campsite. She returned his look with a half-smile.
Everything's fine,
she thought.
Really....
Then she touched the necklace self-consciously. Had she broken it, somehow? Was that possible? Her thoughts raced, filling her with anxiety.

The assassin turned away and scattered the ashes from the fire, obscuring their camp with leaves and brush. Then he lifted up Burn's large satchel, swinging it over his shoulder. They followed the new trail through the trees.

The day was surprisingly cool, the forest lush and alive. Eventually, Burn found a deer trail and they followed it parallel to the river. All Sora cared about was getting to the coast. Once on the beach, they could start looking for the sacrificial stones. She tried to keep her thoughts focused on that, and not the failure of her necklace, or the possibility that Volcrian had already arrived. He would surely follow them—but how quickly?

They passed through tangled brush, odd roots and large ferns. The deer trail turned along the banks of the river, where it broadened into a walking path. It appeared ancient and abandoned, the stone cracked and worn. They came across large stone pillars, broken and toppled across the trail, as though long ago this had been a magnificent garden, full of statues and gazebos. Flagstones jutted from the ground at odd angles, puncturing the earth, the remains of a disheveled garden path. The trees changed as well, showing a greater mix of deciduous leaves: sycamore, ash and chestnut. They weren't native to the island; that she could tell.

Looking at the dense wilderness, Sora could almost imagine what it must have been like some four hundred years ago. Grand, perhaps. Manicured. Ornate.

“The gardens of Asterion were one of the great wonders of the Races,” Burn said as they climbed over another fallen pillar. It was made of white limestone, carved with intricate shapes, some of which resembled feathers or flower petals. He sounded somewhat wistful. “Now it is a wilderness.”

“A shame,” Laina observed. “I wish the island had never fallen. My grandmother said that when Aerobourne fell, the days of true civilization ended.”

“I think humans have done pretty well so far,” Sora said, remembering the docks of Delbar and the bell-covered walls of Barcella. Humans might not have magic, but their world was vast and sprawled, their buildings large and majestic, full of history and tradition.

Laina gave her a narrow look. “Not when you're a street rat,” she sniffed. “All ghettos look the same. My grandmother said that no Harpy ever went hungry in Asterion, and none were poor.”

Sora sighed. Of course the girl would say that. “I doubt that's true,” she commented.

Laina glared at her, but didn't reply.

After walking for another hour, Sora heard a dull chiming at the edge of her hearing. She paused between a large fern and a ruptured flagstone. Instinctively, her eyes traveled up to the sky.

“What is it?” Burn asked.

“The necklace....” Sora said, touching the stone. It still felt stifled and distant; she couldn't hear it as she once had. The jingling of bells was very dim, and yet....

Suddenly, she saw a speck on the horizon, a small white dot. After a moment, it was joined by two more white flecks. Sora stared at the quickly approaching figures. They moved much faster than birds, almost three times the speed, like arrows. She squinted, trying to make out more details.

“What...what are those?” she asked, pointing.

She heard Burn inhale sharply. He reached for his sword, an automatic gesture. “Crash,” he growled. “They've seen us.”

The assassin watched the sky, hesitating only for a moment, then grabbed Sora's arm. Hard. “Into the forest!” he snapped. “Take cover!”

Sora ran with him into the woods. His urgency was contagious. She wasn't sure if she feared the Harpies, but she found herself reaching for her knives. The points of light were approaching at a formidable pace. They would be above them any minute now.

Burn and Laina fell back, struggling through the deep underbrush. Sora looked back, spotting them a few yards behind. This area of the forest was dense with short scrub-oak and tall, broad maples. Perhaps at one time the grove had been crisply pruned and maintained, but now, thick, thorny bushes spread between the trunks, mingling with hemlock sprigs and poison ivy.

“Wait!” she heard Laina call. “We can't catch up.”

“Watch out!” Burn yelled.

Suddenly, a burst of light filtered down through the trees, as though the sun had fallen toward them, brightening the earth. The light fell directly over Laina and Burn. Sora turned away, shielding her eyes. The back of her neck turned pink from the heat. She stumbled through a thick patch of bushes, hardly able to see.

Crash grabbed her upper arm again, leading her forward. “Damn,” she heard him mutter. “They're fast.”

Sora could barely jog. The light felt like a barrier—she couldn't raise her head, couldn't straighten her back, her eyes were narrowed to slits. She could hear Burn and Laina fumbling and cursing, falling farther and farther behind.

Suddenly, a powerful voice rang out through the forest. It fell on her ears like a whiplash. “Stop.”

Laina and Burn froze in place, unable to move. Sora's legs locked; her body vibrated with sound, as though she were a musical instrument struck by some unseen hand. Yet the Cat's Eye jingled fiercely in retaliation, breaking the spell, setting her legs free. She continued to run into the forest, leaving Burn and Laina behind.
There's no time! They're right on top of us!
Crash was by her side. He, too, was able to shake off the command, though he moved more sluggishly now.

Another flash of light. Something flew past her, as quick as a crossbow bolt. Sora cried out, shocked, wondering if she had been hit. Then something wrapped around Crash's legs, dragging him to the ground. The assassin let out a short cry as he went down.

Sora came to a skidding halt, her heart in her throat. She had never heard him make such a sound before. “Crash!” she screamed, dropping back to his side.

The assassin writhed on the ground. He reached for the weapon that bound his legs, but flinched back, hissing in pain.

Sora recognized it; she had used a smaller version of the weapon back at her mother's house when hunting. It was a bolas, a pair of weights attached to a chain, meant to trip an opponent—or entangle fleeing prey. Except instead of a regular chain, this one glowed white-hot, enchanted by some unknown magic. The weights on either end were not iron or rock, but sunstone.

The bolas bound his legs together tightly. The assassin's eyes were clamped shut, his face averted from the light. She could see welts and burns rising on his skin. The chain smoked where it touched his clothing.

“Goddess,” Sora pleaded. She rolled him over, trying to free him from the web of light, but when she touched the bolas, it was like fire in her hands. She dropped the chain with a short hiss, her fingers already blistered.

“Run, Sora,” Crash gasped. “Run!”

It was too late. The wind suddenly picked up, blasting through the trees, shaking leaves to the ground in a small hurricane. Sora squinted as a cloud of dust blew toward her. She got up on her feet, standing protectively over Crash's figure. A fierce determination filled her. She would not run from these beings. She had nothing to hide. She was here for the good of the Kingdom, the entire mainland.

The light brightened, then faded, though it did not fully disappear. Two men and a woman descended through the branches. They landed softly in the dirt, elegant, perfectly controlled. Sora raised her chin and tried not to feel intimidated.

At first glance, the Harpies appeared no different from humans, though perhaps slightly taller, long-limbed and willowy. They wore strange armor that looked like plates of glass instead of iron. It glinted in the sunlight, opalescent. Each suit of armor was studded with sunstones.

But their wings entranced her: possibly twelve feet or more in length, shining like starlight, pure white against the yellow afternoon sun. After landing, the glow slowly faded from their wings and they appeared like ordinary flesh and bone, similar to the doves she had kept at her manor.

They all had identical white-blond hair and large, luminescent eyes of various pastel colors, light green, light blue and...lavender.

Sora glanced to where Laina stood a few yards away. She and Burn were still rooted to the ground, frozen in place. Her hair was a tad darker than the Harpies', and yet her fine-boned features were the same, the paleness of her skin, the shade of her eyes.

Sora swallowed hard, choking on realization.

“I am Talarin.” The first of the Harpies spoke, a tall female with long legs and giant wings, the largest of the lot. Her hair was thick and fell to her waist. It was pulled back by a large helmet that covered the crown of her head, then spiraled backwards and up, like a seashell. “You are trespassing on our land. We have come to escort you to our city. You may come peaceably...or not.”

Sora's eyes shifted to the two men behind Talarin. One held a strange kind of crossbow made of white wood. It didn't appear to be loaded, and yet he held it trained on her, prepared to shoot.
I'd be a fool to run now,
she thought. The weapon had to be magic. Nothing else made sense. Her Cat's Eye might protect her...but she couldn't abandon her friends.

Sora nodded. “We've traveled to your island from the mainland. We are here on important business. We must speak to...er....” Did Harpies have Kings? Queens? She had no idea. “Whoever is in charge.”

Talarin stared at her with sharp lavender eyes, as bright as amethysts. Then her gaze slid to the assassin on the ground. A look of disgust passed over her face. “Our Matriarch will decide who she wishes to speak to.”

Sora opened her mouth. “Release him,” she demanded, pointing to the assassin. “Then we'll come willingly with you.”

Talarin sneered at her. “I'd much rather kill him.” She raised her hand, signaling the man with the crossbow.

“Wait!” Sora said, and moved in front of Crash. She was at a huge disadvantage, and if she put up a fight, she would lose even more credibility. “All right,” she agreed. “We'll come peaceably.”

Talarin nodded in acceptance, then quickly motioned to the man on her right. “Feros, carry her.”

Sora didn't have time to react. The male Harpy lunged forward, carried by his wings. Then, he was behind her. He grabbed her hands and tied them behind her back, all within a matter of seconds. She was stiff with shock.

“Mythas, take the Dark One,” Talarin ordered.

The other Harpy shouldered his crossbow and glided swiftly to Crash's side. Sora was forced to stand back. She looked down at her fallen companion. He lay motionless in the dirt, his eyes averted, slightly glazed with pain, focused on the trees. Yet she could see a hardness in his gaze. Anger? Hatred?

A cold chill swept through her. She suddenly wondered what the Harpies would do. They seemed far more focused on capturing him. Perhaps Crash hadn't been exaggerating—perhaps he truly was in danger. She tried to quell the fear that accompanied that thought.

“No!” she burst out. “He'll cooperate! He won't fight you!”

“He'll fight,” Talarin snapped. “Mythas, hurry up. Put a collar on him. Tell Caprion we've caught one—and he's
Named.
”

Sora didn't like the woman's tone—full of cruel anticipation. She opened her mouth again, but didn't know what to say. She instinctively reached out to her Cat's Eye, trying to summon its power, perhaps use it as she had in the Crystal Caves. But the stone barely stirred.

Mythas knelt next to Crash's side and took a sunstone from the pouch on his belt. He held the sunstone out and Sora saw it flare up like a vibrant torch. The Harpy channeled his energy into it, making the stone glow brighter. Crash gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and his body went rigid. She couldn't imagine what the stone was doing to him, but it looked...searingly painful.

Then Mythas knelt down and placed the stone at the base of Crash's throat. She almost cried out as his skin smoked and singed. Red welts began to form. She half-expected Crash to retaliate, lash out, fight back...perhaps scream...but he only lay there, unmoving.
Bound,
she suddenly realized. Bound by the sunstones.

Talarin walked back to Burn and Laina. The Harpy warrior grabbed one of them in each hand. When she touched them, a white light surrounded their bodies. The forest became saturated with unknown energy—it permeated the air, thick as sunlight.

The Harpy spread her wings and then leapt from the ground, carrying both of her companions upward, compelled by an invisible power. Sora couldn't believe her eyes. Laina would have been easy to carry, but Burn was almost seven feet tall, a towering mountain of dense muscle and bone. Yet the Harpy made it look effortless.