Malediction (Scars of the Sundering Book 1) (10 page)

* * *

Pancras
heard Edric's request for sticks to use as skewers and quickened his pace. He
didn't think there were animals large enough to be a threat to him living in
the plains of Etrunia, although he couldn't say the same for the grove of
trees. He preferred staying with the rest of the group and felt a bit exposed
out alone.

Anywhere
there were dark hollows in which creatures could shelter or hide waiting for
prey there was an element of danger. Forests could be just as dangerous as deep
caverns, and Pancras had much less experience with forests. The closer he came
to the trees, the more it seemed they were a freestanding grove. He heard a
knocking sound coming from the trees. Pancras hoped it was something innocuous
and not some fierce beast that ate minotaurs. Other birds sang cheerful,
lilting songs in the distance.

At the edge
of the grove, Pancras found sufficient deadwood to start a fire and even a few
larger pieces they could snap into smaller ones to keep it fed well into the
night. He found a few long branches on trees that would have made excellent
skewers but had nothing with which to cut them. He ran his hand along a branch
and looked up at the tree. Its broad, green leaves swayed in the breeze, a
hypnotic dance born of nature.

Nearby, a
branch snapped. Its crack made Pancras's blood freeze in his veins. The
minotaur felt the fur on the back of his neck stand on end as he peered into
the underbrush for whatever it was that caused the noise. The canopy of the
treetops kept most of the sunlight from reaching the ground, and the thickness
of the undergrowth was such that it was impossible to see more than a dozen
feet into it.

A cold
breeze picked up dead leaves from where they had fallen, sending them swirling
around Pancras's feet. A shiver crawled down his back as he realized the bird
songs stopped. After several minutes of staring into the trees and surrounding
underbrush, he relaxed. Whatever made the noise was not coming after him.
Or,
if it is, it's more patient than I am.

Pancras
backed away from the grove and trotted toward the campsite. He kept his pace
steady but somewhat faster than normal. When he arrived, he found Delilah
studying her language book while her brother examined his puzzle box. Edric
skinned the second of the two rabbits, having completed his preparation of the
first one.

"Here's
all the wood I could gather." The minotaur dropped the bundle of sticks
and branches in a pile near the area Edric cleared for use as a fire pit.
"I couldn't find anything usable as a skewer without cutting it from a
live tree, and I didn't have an axe."

Edric
grunted and wiped his knife on his trousers before yanking the rest of the skin
off the rabbit. He tossed the furry bundle onto the pile with the rest of the
leavings. He waved his knife at Kale. "Put the box down, and go find me
some good sized rocks, why don't you?"

The drak's
mouth formed a thin line. "Go find your own rocks. I've almost got this
first layer figured out."

Delilah
snapped her book shut and shoved it back in her pack. "Come on, Kale. I'll
help you. Besides, I want to talk to you in private." She grabbed Kale's
arm and pulled him to his feet. He scowled and tossed the puzzle box on top of
his pack.

Pancras
knelt and examined the rabbit skins and entrails. "Can we do anything with
these?" He lifted one of the pelts, its fur scorched in patches where
Delilah had attacked it.

Shaking his
head, Edric hacked at one of the rabbits, cutting into pieces. "If the
drak hadn't burned it to a crisp, we might be able to sell the pelts, but
they're not worth anything now. Can you use the entrails to tell our
futures?"

Lifting a
rope-like loop of intestine, Pancras shook his head. "I know the
techniques, but they're not accurate. Most divinations are little more than
educated guesses, anyway." He tossed the bloody bit back into the pile.
"Besides, I don't need a rabbit's guts to tell me we're in for a lot of
discomfort and misery on this journey."

* * *

"What's
this about, Deli? That fuzz-faced dwarf can find his own rocks!"

Delilah
ignored her brother's complaints until the tall grasses hid the campsite from
their view. She picked up a fist-sized rock and looked around for more like it.
"I want to talk to you." She picked up a second rock slightly larger
than the first. It was flatter on one side. "Without them around."

Kale knelt
down and scratched around a large rock protruding from the ground. "Fine,
what?"

Delilah
knelt beside him and grabbed his chin, raising his head to look into his eyes.
"How are you feeling? Really, Kale. No bravado this time."

Jerking his
head away, Kale narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "I'm fine. Honestly,
today I feel fine. My back is still sore, but not like it was the other
night."

Delilah
moved his cloak aside to look at the lumps on his back. She thought they looked
slightly larger than they did before, but they did not look inflamed. She put
her hand on his head, prompting him to fall back away from her. He was warm,
but not feverish.

"You're
not cold? Too hot?"

"No!
Well, I think I'm warmer than I should be, but it's not uncomfortable,
especially if I leave my hood down." Kale returned to his knees and continued
scratching at the ground around the rock. He cleared away enough to free it
from the ground. Fat, pink worms wriggled and fell off the bottom of it. He
stuck his tongue out in disgust and brushed them off.

Delilah
grabbed one of the worms. It wriggled between her fingers. She and Kale used to
find them in Drak-Anor when they were hatchlings, scratching up the dirt in the
caves looking for sustenance.
That was a long time ago
. She popped it in
her mouth.

"Ugh.
Still tastes like dirt." She chewed it and swallowed.

Kale nodded.
He moved over to another spot and picked up a couple more rocks.

"You're
really okay? You'll tell me if you start feeling worse, right?" Delilah
stood up and meandered to where he worked.

"It
won't do any good if I do. We don't have a healer with us, and Pancras doesn't
know what's wrong with me."

"Yeah,
well, I want to know so I can worry properly." Delilah picked up another
rock. "Think we have enough?"

"Probably.
What does he want with these anyway?" Kale gathered his rocks and cradled
them in his arms as they trekked toward the camp.

"I bet
he misses home. Dwarves probably use them as pillows." Delilah laughed.
She imagined Edric cradling the dirty rocks they found like precious gems. The
image of the dwarf sleeping on and around the rocks made her giggle all the way
back to camp.

When they
returned, Edric had finished butchering the rabbits and was talking to a seated
Pancras, who held his lodestone in front of him, gesturing toward the south.

"We got
your rocks!" Kale and Delilah dumped them in a pile near the center of
camp. Edric approached them and sorted through the rocks, humming and nodding.

"Okay,
you've earned your dinners. These will work perfectly!" Edric arranged the
roundest rocks in a circle and placed the flatter rocks on the inside. He then
proceeded to stack up the wood, first the smallest twigs for kindling and then
the larger branches. When he was finished, he stepped aside and gestured to
Delilah. The drak grabbed her staff and pointed at the fire pit.

"
Aktina
tees pyrkagias!
" A thin finger of fire shot forth from Delilah's staff
and set the kindling alight.

"She's
handy to have around, huh?" Kale helped Edric carry the rabbit pieces and
arrange them on the flat rocks.

"I
guess you're both useful at times."

Delilah
stuck out her tongue at Edric.

Pancras
gathered everyone around the fire. Already the rabbits sizzled and hissed, and
the campsite filled with the aroma of roasting meat. "I've been trying to
keep track of how far we've come and how far we've yet to go. The inn was about
halfway to Almeria. Obviously, it would've been faster to cut overland as soon
as we emerged from the mountains, but I hoped for a warmer reception at
Bramblevale Keep."

Smelling the
aroma of roasting rabbits, Delilah's stomach knotted up in anticipation. She
smacked her lips and looked over at the sizzling pieces of meat. Edric stooped
down to flip them over and move them around to keep them from burning.

"Do you
think someone will sell us horses in Almeria?" His hands resting on his
belly, Kale watched Edric work. Delilah figured he must be hungry since
recently he drastically reduced how much he ate at each meal.

"I hope
so."

Edric
snorted and stood up. "More likely than not, they'll run us off just like
those idiots at the keep."

Pancras
shook his head. "I don't think so. When I passed through there last time,
minotaurs and draks lived there. Not many, mind you, but it didn't strike me as
a particularly xenophobic town."

"Times
change." Edric returned his attention to tending the meat.

Delilah
glanced at her brother. Engrossed in watching Edric cook dinner, Kale was
oblivious to his sister’s anxieties. She couldn't help but worry about their
fates if Almeria turned them away before winter arrived.

* * *

Kale's
stomach rumbled. He pressed his hands against it and hoped it would quiet down.
He was hungry enough that he wanted to snatch up the still-cooking rabbits and
eat all of them, but his experience in the inn made him wary of indulging in
that fashion. He returned to his bedroll and picked up the puzzle box from
where he left it.

He turned it
over in his hands, trying to find the side he examined before their
rock-hunting expedition. Every side was almost identical. The subtle
differences were all but invisible except to the trained eye. He noticed a tiny
lever on the side facing him and with the greatest of care, stuck a claw
through the gold lattice and moved it. With an audible click, the gears sprung
to life and turned and then stopped with another click.

"What
was that?" Pancras looked up from his pack.

"My
puzzle box. I found a lever!" Kale brought the box over to Pancras.
"It made the gears on this side move a little but didn't do anything
else."

"What
does that thing do anyway?" Edric poked one of the large pieces of rabbit
with his knife. "What's it for?"

"I
don't know." Kale shrugged and looked back down at the box.
"Terrakaptis gave it to me. He said the reward was in figuring out how to
open it."

"Looks
like you solved a piece of that puzzle." Pancras smiled at Kale.

"Yeah…"
Kale wandered back to his bedroll and peered at the puzzle box as if staring at
it hard enough would unlock its secrets.

"The
rabbits are roasted. Let's eat!" Edric whistled and beckoned everyone
over. He held up a steaming piece of meat impaled on his dagger.

Edric
distributed the rabbit, and they all sat around the fire tearing into the hot,
sinewy meat. The dwarf didn't have much with which to season it as it cooked,
but the hot meal helped lessen the weariness of the day. Kale fought the urge
to wolf it down and forced himself to take small bites and chew them thoroughly
before he swallowed. The last thing he wanted to do vomit it all up again as
occurred at the inn. Kale was adapting to the heat he seemed to generate, but
the pain in his shoulders irritated him. It wasn't too severe while he was just
strolling around, but he feared it would limit him if they encountered any
situations requiring quick movements or outright fighting.

The rest of
the evening passed without trouble from Kale's stomach or curious animals
wandering into the camp. As they ate, the King and Queen, Calliome's twin
moons, shone down brightly from the sky but by the time they turned in for the
night were obscured by clouds. No rain came, though, and save for the morning
dew, everyone was dry, well rested, and ready to resume their journey.

Pleasant,
though more temperate, weather accompanied them for the next few days. Cool
autumn winds blew puffy clouds across the sky and created patches of shadow
that kept the sun off their backs. A grazing herd of animals with which Kale
was unfamiliar, but which Edric and Pancras called blackbucks, paralleled their
course for an afternoon. Delilah wanted to hunt one down, but they had no means
to preserve the excess meat.

After
traveling a few more days, evidence of civilization appeared in the distance across
the fields. They noticed what appeared to be several farms and homesteads, the
smoke from their chimneys wafting up into the sky in lazy columns. The road
widened, and wheel ruts from caravan wagons became more prominent.

"Do you
think we should move off the road, Pancras?" Kale was concerned about the
reactions of passersby, should they encounter any.