Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (38 page)

Ryson didn't always appreciate the
level of control in Burbon—the level at which the town guard maintained order
and the reciprocating attitude of its citizens—but there were times it worked
to his advantage. Ryson might have enjoyed the freedom of spirit that allowed
him to race off into the hills for days at a time, but the rest of the town's
citizens normally restrained any great urges of wild independence. Burbon
thrived on order, it embraced it. Unusual behavior was noted immediately. If
something was going on in Burbon, Sy would know about it.

After sprinting to the center of
town, Ryson knocked on the guard headquarters door and waited respectfully to
be allowed to enter. Despite his growing distress, he patiently asked to see
the guard captain as opposed to simply rushing into his office. He was very
happy to see Sy come out to greet him, until he heard what the guard captain
had to say.

"I'm glad you're here,"
the captain revealed. "I heard you just came through the gate and I was
about to send someone out to get you."

"I was looking for
Linda," Ryson revealed. "I thought you might know where she is. She's
not at work, and..."

"We don't know where she
is," Sy interrupted with a strained tone. Knowing the delver would want as
much detailed information as possible, he continued quickly. "She walked
out the western gate after you left for Connel. She was on foot and wasn't
carrying any supplies. We thought she would be back quickly, but she hasn't
returned."

"What?!"

"I know. It doesn't make any
sense."

It was beyond not making sense for
the delver, and Ryson grasped for reason.

"Was there anyone with
her?"

"No, she was alone."

"Did you send someone out
after her?"

"Of course I did. I have
guards on horseback still out on patrol. There's no sign of her." Sy could
see the panic growing in the eyes of the delver and he did his best to lessen
Ryson's greatest fears. "I've had the patrols report back at standard
intervals. There also isn't any sign that she was attacked. We've found nothing
that would indicate she's been harmed. The road is empty."

The additional news did little to
ease the delver's near incapacitating dread. With sheer force of will, he
fought off the confusion and anxiety, shut out the shocking fear. He considered
what he knew, reviewed the facts in his mind, and questions requiring answers
flowed from his lips.

"She just walked out the
western gate? Where was the guard? Didn't anyone try to stop her?"

Sy explained everything he learned
from the report of the guard at the gate. As the captain expected, none of it
satisfied the delver.

"She went into the
forest?!" Ryson exclaimed. He couldn't believe it. The entire situation
altered from unbelievable to unforgivable, and he was ready to blame everyone.
"And you let her go?!"

The question wasn't a surprise to
the captain. It was his first reaction as well, but he kept the sentiment to
himself. He had went over the details with the gate guard when he received the
first report. He wondered if he would have done anything differently if he had
been there himself.

"My soldier didn't want her
to go. He did everything to persuade her, but she insisted. There was nothing
he could do."

"He should have stopped
her!" Ryson insisted.

Sy understood Ryson's outburst,
but he defended his guard.

"What could he have done?
Arrested her?"

Ryson boiled with anger but
couldn't afford wasting any more time. Arguing with the captain was irrelevant.
All he could think of was Linda... alone in the forest. He raced from the
office and toward the western gate.

As Sy watched the delver leave, he
considered his options. In the end, he allowed the delver to leave Burbon
without interference. If there was anyone within the town's borders that could
find and help Linda, it was Ryson. He would let the delver do what Ryson did
best, and prepare to help him if necessary.

The captain sent a message to the
guards to step up their patrols outside the gates and be prepared to assist
Ryson if any request was made. It was all he could do.

Ryson bolted past the guards at
the western gate and down the road towards the edge of Dark Spruce. As he ran,
he scanned the numerous tracks in the dirt. It was a myriad of wagon wheel
trails, as well as soldier and horse tracks all mashed together.

Still, finding Linda's initial
trail was not difficult for him, not for a delver. He could still catch a faint
trace of her scent and he quickly found the tracks in the dirt road that led
into the forest. He followed them with a flicker of growing hope, but when they
turned off down a small trail, Ryson felt as if his heart was going to explode.

His gaze followed her tracks
deeper into the forest. He understood why the guards didn't find her. There was
no sane reason for her to make that turn. And since she did, there was probably
very little they could do to save her.

Could he save her?

He wouldn't answer the question in
his mind. He couldn't. The obvious answer was too painful. He had explored that
section of the woods many times. He knew the dangers. He could avoid them. He
was a delver. But what chance did Linda have?

#

The shag stepped directly up to
the female and looked her over with a mix of feelings. On instinct alone, it
wanted nothing more than to grab her, snap her spine, and bring her back to its
den. She was much larger than a goblin and would serve to feed the monster for
several meals.

Confusion, however, initially
overrode the beast's more basic instinct. It continued to sense the strange
aura around the human, an emanation that served as a warning. The radiating
field puzzled the shag. Not quite a glow or a cloud of smoke, it could not be
seen by the eyes, but its existence could not be denied. It was like a shroud
of minute dust particles that avoided detection even in a sunbeam.

The unique and intangible covering
didn't necessarily protect the potential prey, like some magical suit of armor,
but it cast a shadow of admonition. It was almost as if the human had been
claimed, much like the territory the shag protected, and the female had been
marked in such a way that predators would recognize.

Once more the beast considered
turning away, but the aura slowly began to fade. Portions of a small cloud
continued to float around the woman, but that was dissipating as well.

As it did, the shag sensed yet
another perplexing attribute. It could not dismiss the absence of magic within
the human, yet it seemed as if a very small pocket of strange energy existed
within the woman's center. The immunity could not be ignored, and while it
angered the beast, the entire situation left the monster bewildered.

Beyond the magical immunity, there
was the action of the prey herself. The shag could not comprehend why the human
dared to defy it. It expected the female to attempt to flee or cower in fear.
She did neither. The woman stared at the shag with contempt, daring the beast
to attack her.

And contempt was exactly what
Linda felt. She locked her gaze upon the eyes of the hairy beast before her.
She sneered at it even as the beast towered over her. There was fear deep in
her consciousness at facing such a monstrosity, but it was completely submerged
in boiling anger. So much so that she did not waver in her stance. Her back
remained straight and her knees stable. She kept her arms at her side, but her
hands were clenched into tight fists.

"Well?" she growled.

The shag growled back in
response... not a roar, but a subtle snarl.

"Is that supposed to scare
me?" Linda demanded.

Her head pounded, the pulse of her
blood thumped against her skull. All of existence around her narrowed into
tunnel vision of the shag. Everything else faded into a seething desire to
strike out at the creature.

And she did.

Her right hand came up quickly and
she threw a straight punch into the center of the beast's chest.

The shag felt no pain, but it
actually stepped back in apparent amazement.

Linda took not one, but two steps
closer, reducing the distance that was initially between them. She had to bend
her head back to look up into the creature's eyes.

"What's the matter?" she
demanded in an even more vicious growl. "Don't you know what to do?"

She didn't strike the shag again.
In fact, she dropped her hands back to her sides. She left herself completely
vulnerable, but she never, not for one instant, believed the beast would lash
out against her. She didn't know why—she could not feel anything other than the
anger and could not see anything beyond the shag in front of her—but she
remained absolutely certain the monster would not dare attack. Logically, she
should have expected to be killed in an instant, but logic could not break
through the crowded emotions at the center of her being.

"I'm not moving!" she
declared. "We can stand here all day if that's what you want. We can stand
here forever. Why not?"

The shag stared down at her for
only a moment more, uncertain of what to do until it sensed yet another
invader. It smelled, heard and saw the new presence all at once—it could not
miss it—and despite the shag's own size and strength, it knew it was
outmatched.

The hairy beast turned and ran
back to its den, climbed deep into the shadows. It would not exit for several
days, unwilling to risk a conflict with a being of colossal physical power and
even greater strength of spirit.

Linda sneered at the fleeing
shag's back, cursed at it for cowardice. She almost followed it, would have
been willing to enter the monster's den, but her fuming rage kept her frozen in
place. She visibly shook as she shouted a string of profanities.

Eventually, she, too, noticed the
rustling behind her, heard the heavy footfalls over her tirade. She didn't turn
to face the striking thumps of a giant's steps or to see small trees shoved
gingerly aside to make room for the titanic form. Instead, she stared off into
the distance, her gaze following the shag's path of unceremonious retreat.

The cliff behemoth did not seem
fazed by the torrent of obscenities streaming from Linda's mouth, though he
would never indulge in such hostile comments himself. He ignored the outburst
and instead looked to the trail of the shag to ensure that it had left. Certain
that the beast was long gone, the giant turned its gentle gaze onto Linda.

"Do you recognize me?"

"Of course," Linda
barked, barely acknowledging the colossal form next to her. She didn't move at
first, but rather kept staring off at the trail the shag had taken. When she
realized the beast would not return, she finally turned her venom unjustifiably
upon the cliff behemoth.

"You think I'm an
idiot?" she accused with a sneer.

"Not at all," the titan
responded almost cheerfully but remained clearly concerned with Linda's
well-being.

"You're Dzeb," Linda
offered, as if to prove herself superior to the cliff dweller. "You're the
cliff behemoth that keeps showing up around... Ryson."

She almost couldn't say the
delver's name, and when she did, she appeared repulsed by it.

"It's not only the delver I
care about, but you as well," Dzeb admitted.

Linda scoffed at the concern,
tossed it aside like some old, heavy sweater on a very warm day.

"Why aren't you in the mountains?"

"I was concerned about
you."

"I don't need your
concern," Linda said, and then actually spat on the ground as if the
thought left a bad taste in her mouth.

"You have it anyway."

"Shouldn't you be praying to
Godson or something like that?"

"I can do both."

"Good for you."

A silence fell between them, but
neither seemed to mind.

Dzeb looked about the forest,
smiled at the birds and squirrels that chirped happily at his presence. Many
appeared in plain sight, as if the simple existence of the cliff behemoth in
their forest was a blessed event for them to enjoy.

Linda's mind was still filled with
foreign fury. The anger burned inside her, but she had no real target for her
animosity. She had left Burbon, and for the most part, discarded thoughts of her
husband. Her rage remained, but it was growing more unfocused by the moment.

The only distraction was the
peaceful cliff behemoth next to her, and eventually she grew irritated at his
silence.

"Well?" she finally
demanded.

"Well what?"

"Don't you have something to
say to me?"

Dzeb contemplated the question and
offered an honest response.

"Not necessarily. I don't
mind just standing here with you."

"What if I don't plan on
standing here?"

"That would be fine,"
Dzeb said calmly. "Where do you intend on going next?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I do."

Linda released a frustrated sigh.

"It's none of your
business!"

"I apologize if I'm
intruding."

"I don't need your apologies,
either."

Dzeb did not respond this time.
The mighty cliff behemoth just smiled at Linda, his calm blue eyes revealed a
deep peace within.

The expression of contentment
irritated Linda even more.

"Don't you have something
better to do?"

"No."

"Well, maybe I'll change my
mind and just stand here for days on end," Linda growled, as if to annoy
the cliff behemoth with her stubbornness.

"Then I will stand with
you."

"I don't need your
protection."

"From the way you dealt with
the shag, I can see that. But if it's not necessary to offer you protection, at
least I can offer you companionship."

"That's another thing I don't
need."