The Dreaming Hunt (31 page)

“That is an
excellent
question. Clearly, he is a man who bears watching.”

Bah. She was no lover of intrigue and secrets. “Finish healing these wretched souls, shall we?” Sha'Li muttered in distaste.

The last row of slaves awaiting sale was mostly big, burly men, scarred and hard-looking. They lounged casually, seemingly unconcerned about their fates.

A half dozen well-dressed men turned down the row with a man dressed like a noble in the lead.

“Bogatyr,” Raina muttered.

“Who?”

“Head of the Dupree Entertainer's Guild.”

Sha'Li tensed as she realized the man and his entourage were headed straight for her and Raina. “Go now we must.”

Behind them, Bogatyr boomed, “Fine lot of fighters this week. Good fodder for the Diamond. New season's starting up in just a few weeks. Could use a few more gladiators to round out the schedule. What do you say, boys? Any of you interested in testing yourselves against some filthy greenskins?”

A shout went up from the row of men they'd just left behind.

Raina rolled her eyes at Sha'Li, who rolled hers back, and they headed for the exit.

The slaver who'd spoken with them before sidled up to them. “Thanks be to ye fer the healin', White Heart. Just doubled me take, ye did. I owe ye.”

“No thanks are necessary.” Sha'Li heard the sarcasm in her friend's voice, but the slaver seemed to miss it.

“Still. I pays me debts. And I likes ye Heart types. You's good to us regular folk. Al'ays treated me and mine righ'. Gonna do ye a favor.” His voice dropped to a low rasp, and he mumbled from behind unmoving lips, “I gots a tip fer ye. Them Kithmar—you know—them white tiger rakasha slavers wot shows up now and again?”

The same Kithmar clan who'd been in league with Anton during his invasion of the Forest of Thorns? Sha'Li's ears perked up.

“They takes side jobs from time ter time.” The slaver drew a finger across his throat in a slitting motion and whispered, “Ye catch me drift?”

The Kithmar took contracts to kill people? To her knowledge, they were not sanctioned assassins. Next time she saw Selea, she would have to mention it. Mayhap he would take action to stop them if they were taking unsanctioned hits.

“Way I hears it, they's mighty miffed coz a certain personage they used ta do business with is cutting them out of his new action.”

Anton was stirring up trouble again? Oh, joy.

“What's this personage up to now?” Raina asked.

“Dunno. I jus' know 'im and them Kithmar's on the outs.”

Sha'Li was glad to leave the miserable place. But as they made their way across the expanse of Governor's Square, a man in rough woodsman's garb fell in beside her. Sha'Li was stunned to see a deep green Tribe of the Moon mark on the fellow's right cheek. Slowing her pace, she fell a little behind Raina, who was distracted watching a group of acrobats perform.

“Greetings, friend,” he mumbled.

“To you the same,” she muttered back, aware that he was staring at the moon and star mark on her own cheek. Its white coloration was unheard of among tribe members.

“I'm to deliver a message to the black lizardman girl: do not forget that our kind protects the protectors of nature.”

She stared at the man. “What means this nonsense?”

“When the time comes, you must protect Kerryl Moonrunner. His work must continue.”

Raina had continued to walk on, and Sha'Li stopped to stare at the man. “He kidnapped our friend. We want him back.”

“You must choose between your friends and your tribe.”

“Betray my friends you ask of me?”

“If you wish to retain that mark, you will be loyal to the Tribe of the Moon above all. Will you keep your vows or not?”

“Of course I will,” she blurted. She was angrier and more scared than she dared let on. Obviously this was a warning shot across her bow that she'd been skirting dangerously close to putting her friends ahead of her family. But to betray her friends … that did not sit well with her.

Troubled, she looked up at the woodsman. “Who sends this message to me?”

A shrug. “I do not know. I am merely the messenger.” A pause, then he blurted, “Is your mark really white, or is that just a trick of your coloring?”

She shrugged in return. As if she had any idea why Lunimar had chosen to turn her mark its unheard-of color. Tribe marks were known to appear in gray, red, green, silver, and gold, even in black, but never white.

The man spoke in a whispered rush. “I was also told to share a piece of information with you. The Coil is asking around about some kids who went up north a while back, a tribe-marked lizardman among them.”

“Asking what?” she demanded.

“What they found. Where they are now.”

She hissed in a sharp breath.

“I'd lie low for a while if I were you. Go for a nice, long swim somewhere else.”

Outright alarm blossomed in Sha'Li's belly now. “For the message and warning, thanks be.”

“We take care of our own.” The man peeled away from her into the crowd crossing Heart Square and disappeared. Sha'Li hastened to rejoin her friend.

Raina asked, “Who was that?”

If only she could talk to the healer about the strange exchange. Raina was so much better than she at understanding hidden meanings and nuances of politics. She didn't like that her tribe brethren were keeping secrets from her. What exactly was Kerryl Moonrunner doing that was important enough to abandon Kendrick Hyland? Besides the fact that he was of noble blood, Kendrick was innocent of any wrongdoing. One of the Tribe of the Moon's main tenets was “Protect the Innocent.”

She had a bad feeling about this. How was she supposed to help Kerryl Moonrunner without harming her friends?

And then there was the news about the former governor. Anton was hunting them, was he? That was an unpleasant wrinkle, indeed.

*   *   *

Rynn rarely moved about the streets of Dupree in the daytime on account of his open eye. It was not as if he could pull a hat down over his third eye. Its lid never closed, and anything that touched the eyeball directly caused him excruciating pain. Furthermore, covering his third eye with a patch caused him dizziness and disorientation. He was meant to function with all three of his eyes in the same way that humans were meant to function with both of theirs.

If forced to go out in public, he usually wore a circlet made of intricately twisted wire that formed a cage over and cleverly disguised his third eye as if it were part of the headpiece. Even with the circlet firmly in place, he still wore his hood pulled far forward to hide his face from passersby. His appearance usually drew so much reaction from females that it was impossible for him to move anywhere without drawing a great deal of attention.

He hurried to the tall gate in front of Hyland's house and knocked. One of Hyland's men let him in, and he left the street in deep relief. “Is Guildmaster Aurelius here by any chance?” he asked the guard.

“Nay, but everyone else in Dupree is. Come join the party.”

Rynn halted sharply. “Who is here?”

“Young master Will, Initiate Raina, Sister Rosana. And Eben just barged in here with his hair on fire demanding to see the guildmaster. Guess you'll have to wait in line to see Aurelius, you will.”

Rynn stepped into Hyland's study. Although Aurelius had been taking care of Hyland holding's most urgent affairs from the room for some time, it would always be Leland Hyland's office in his mind. The man's spirit was imprinted in every corner of the room.

“Rynn! What brings you here?” It was Rosana, the pretty gypsy girl who liked Will.

“I need to speak with the guildmaster and was hoping not to have to go to his guild to do so.”

Raina, the other healer, piped up. “Will sent a note to him a quarter hour ago requesting his company here at his earliest convenience. He is a busy man, and we may have to wait a while, but I'm confident he'll come when he can. Can you tarry a bit?”

“I can.”

Eben spoke from the far end of the room near the fireplace. “The only person missing now is Sha'Li. Mayhap we should send for her, as well.”

Raina answered, “She has gone to her lodgings to fetch her belongings, and then she will be along.”

Some emergency was clearly afoot, which was alarming, given the nature of the connection between these youths. The others clustered in two small knots, murmuring among themselves. He sighed, feeling very much the outsider. He had not yet earned his way into their confidence. Until then, he would have to be patient. Which was a challenge given the underlying panic vibrating throughout the room.

The door opened behind him to admit Guildmaster Aurelius.
Hmm. That was fast
.

He listened with interest as Raina told her news of Anton being up to some new mischief, Will warned of a terrible foreboding that had come over him, and Eben finished by sharing news of a promising sighting that sounded a great deal like Kerryl Moonrunner, Kendrick, and the missing scout, Tarryn.

Aurelius asked, “And what brings you here, Rynn?”

“I have word from a reliable source that a Black Ship is en route to Dupree bearing a pack of Imperial hounds.”

Aurelius's eyes lit with comprehension, but Will asked, “What's special about Imperial hounds?”

Rynn looked over at the impossibly young, forest-bred human. “The Emperor's hounds can track anything and anyone. They are known, in particular, for tracking psionicists.” He added lightly, gesturing at his third eye, “Like me.”

Aurelius added, “No place in the colony will be safe for Rynn. They are relentless in pursuit of their quarry. Once they catch a scent, only death can stop them.”

Eben spoke up. “I propose that we head west to Shepard's Rest. We can check out the lead on Kendrick and take Rynn away.”

Aurelius nodded thoughtfully. “It does seem as if events are conspiring to push the lot of you into motion once more. I only hope the additional training you all have received will be adequate to keep you safe.”

Will shrugged. “It will have to be enough.”

The door opened, and everyone in the room turned, tensed, toward the intruder. The lizardman girl Sha'Li burst in. She ground to a halt, staring back at the party as everyone stared at her.

“What? Grown flesh my face has?” she demanded.

Ahh. Nicely done. Sha'Li's comment effectively broke the tension in the room.

“What news have I missed?”

Eben spoke eagerly. “We leave for the west. A merchant out by Shepard's Rest has seen Kendrick and Tarryn.”

“Ready to go am I. Leave now, shall we?”

A plan was quickly formed for Rosana to accompany Aurelius to the Heart. While he had a private word with High Matriarch Lenora, she would pack her and Raina's belongings and bring them back to Hyland's house so Raina would not draw the attention of the Royal Order of the Sun. Will would go to the Mage's Guild to get his possessions, and Sha'Li and Rynn would raid Hyland's storeroom and pull additional provisions for the entire group.

It was hard to believe that so much rested upon the shoulders of a group so young and inexperienced. If he had not seen the evidence himself that these youths had already been touched by extraordinary forces, he would have questioned his marching orders from his secret superiors. Not the paxan Oneiri, who were secretive in their own right—his
other
superiors. The ones he never spoke of, not even to Phinneas, his mentor and closest friend.

But there was no denying this group's odd credentials—Will's strange connection to a tree spirit, Raina's impressive magics, Sha'Li's rare, white Tribe of the Moon mark, Rosana's strange rose markings that possibly marked her as the one he sought. He did not know yet if Eben was in some way special, but he made a mental note to observe the jann closely.

He noted when Raina subtly signaled Aurelius that she needed a word with him alone. The two stepped into the small solar attached to Hyland's study and closed the door. He shouldn't have eavesdropped, but this group had so many secrets, and it was his assignment to discover them. Using his mental powers at the full extent of their abilities, he probed the girl's mind as she spoke to the solinari.

“—something I must give to you for safekeeping.” She was reluctant to hand it over, whatever it was.

A light inhalation of surprise from Aurelius when he saw the object.

“I can't think of anyone else whom I would trust its safety to.”

“I'll put the Sleeping King's crown in the safest spot within the Mage's Guild treasury. After last spring's break-in, we've significantly increased its security measures. I'll make sure a Celestial Order man is on guard around the clock as long as this rests there.”

“Can you disguise it in some way?” the girl asked.
Ahh. Clever idea
.

“Yes, if the crown itself will let me.”

“Here. Let me commune with it.” The girl could speak to an object? This crown was sentient, then? Whose was it? Surely not
the
Sleeping King's.

“I think it will tolerate being disguised in a deceptive fashion,” she said.

“I'll see to it personally,” Aurelius promised. Rynn heard them moving and raced to the desk, where he sat down and busied himself pretending to study a map.

“Dinner should be ready soon. Do you join us?” Aurelius asked him.

“With pleasure.” They moved into the dining room, entering just as one of the house guards came in from the hallway.

“Excuse me, Guildmaster. You have a guest who says he's here on Imperial business.”

Aurelius replied to the guard, “Give us a moment and then send him in.” The solinari glanced warningly at Rynn, who nodded and moved quickly back into Leland's office, closing the door behind him.