The Dreaming Hunt (45 page)

Eben heard rushing human footsteps and spun, looking for the hunter. But instead of a blind man, a half dozen Imperial soldiers burst out of the tunnel the hounds had come from. And they looked angry.

“Will! Watch your back!” he shouted, surging forward to meet this new threat.

Hound number one had other ideas, however, and a massively powerful vise clamped around Eben's left boot. He actually felt teeth through the thick leather as if a bear trap had just closed upon his foot.

A fist flashed past his face and slammed into the hound's nose. The speed of the blow stunned Eben almost as badly as the blow itself stunned the hound. The beast's jaws fell away from his foot. Two more quick fists from Rynn and the mighty beast actually stepped back to shake its head.

“You mustn't kill it!” Raina cried out from behind Eben.

“You can heal it later,” Rynn called back.

And then the soldiers were on him and Rynn. The good news was that they got in the way of the hound who snapped and snarled behind them, trying to find a way through the dense line of soldiers.

It wasn't pretty. Even though Rynn was shockingly fast with his hands, and he wasn't half-bad with a sword himself, six on two just wasn't a winnable fight, particularly when it turned out these were no regular foot troops but highly trained fighters. The soldiers inexorably pushed them back toward a wall, encircling them with a bristling barrage of swords, spears, daggers, and axes.

The party might have stood a chance against the soldiers had not the hunter arrived, feeling his way through the tunnel opening. As soon as he appeared, the hounds went into a frenzy, shoving forward and shouldering aside the soldiers. In a matter of seconds, Eben and his friends had fallen back into a tight little knot, surrounded by a phalanx of soldiers and snapping hounds.

The hounds advanced upon him, snarling ferociously. As much as he wished to stand his ground, his mind cringed before their aggressive recognition of him as their quarry. What was it about
him
that made the beasts so crazed? Raina leaped between him and the alpha beast, and shame coursed through him.

He had not been able to save Marikeen; had not been strong enough to protect Kendrick. Even his foster father, Leland Hyland, had died without any member of his family present to defend him or at least ease his passing. And now his friends were going to perish because he wasn't skilled enough to save them from this disaster he had brought down upon them.

“Step aside, Raina. They came for me,” he declared. He raised his voice, calling to the hunter, who stood well back across the now quiet chamber, “I will surrender and go without a fight if you let my friends go free!”

“Why should I negotiate with you when you have lost, jann?” the hunter replied scornfully.

Eben opened his mouth to answer, but before he could form words, an explosion of magic erupted from one of the side tunnels, slamming into the backs of the soldiers and dropping four of them on the spot. One of the hounds went down, and a second one yelped and went down whimpering and wailing. Across the room, the hunter groaned and grabbed his midsection. Whether he'd been hit by the magic attack or merely felt sympathetic pain with his dog, Eben could not tell.

“Attack!” Rynn growled from beside him.

Eben brought his sword up and joined the fracas, which was much more evenly matched now. Will had gotten really fast with that staff of his, and for his part, Rynn was a blur as he spun and kicked and punched at close range.

The mages—three of them—who'd staged the surprise attack advanced into the room, hands glowing, as he and the others drove the remaining soldiers back and, one by one, dropped them.

“Who are you?” Eben demanded of the nearest mage.

“No time to talk. Come with—”

A flare of magic struck the mage in the back, dropping him in his tracks. Rynn bent down quickly, laying his palm on the man's temple. Eben turned to follow the rescuing mages, but Rynn reached out with his free hand to halt him.

He looked questioningly at the paxan, who was frowning.

Rynn muttered low, “They have malicious intent.”

“Well, I should hope so. They're engaged in combat against Imperial soldiers.”

“No. Malice toward us,” Rynn bit out.

Eben's sword started to come back up, but abruptly, the two conscious mages' hands glowed brightly. Magic had the advantage of being deliverable from a distance. By the time he jumped forward and closed to sword-fighting range, or Rynn made it all the way forward to hand-to-hand range, they would be dropped in their tracks by that magic.

Now that he looked for it, definite violence gleamed in the duo's stares.

“Well, now,” Raina drawled, “if it's magic we're going to be using today, let's use some real magic.”

She held her hands up before her, and in an instant a bright blue ball of magical energy crackled and popped between her fingers, rapidly growing in diameter and intensity. What was she doing? She was White Heart. It was not like she was going to blast anyone with that impressive ball of power.

She took a quick step forward, and the mages fell back before her. The gathering of magic in her hands was now nearly shoulder wide and so bright Eben could barely look at it. Stars, he could actually feel heat rolling off it. The hairs on his arms were standing straight up. Gads, that was a lot of magic. More than he'd ever seen in one place.

From behind the mages, shouts became audible. Someone was charging down yet another tunnel, coming fast, and sounding intent on joining the battle.

The casters never took their stares off that ball of magic now spreading Raina's arms wide and still growing. Which turned out to be a mistake. A squad of lizardmen, perhaps the same ones from before, plowed into the backs of the casters, knocking them down.

The soldiers were just starting to revive, and the lizardmen jumped on the uniformed troopers, wielding claws and spears.

“Go!” one of them shouted. Apparently, the lizardmen were prepared to hold off hounds and hunter, soldiers and mages, all, so he and his friends could make their escape.

Rosana spun and ran for the cave entrance, the one leading down to the water. “This way!” she cried.

Raina flung the ball of magic down just in front of the hounds, and it exploded with a mighty crash like a bolt of lightning striking earth. The hounds yelped, noses undoubtedly singed, and jumped back momentarily. Will shoved Raina after the gypsy and followed behind her, disappearing from sight.

Rynn shouted at him, “Go, Eben! Sha'Li and I will bring up the rear!”

He nodded and sprinted for the stairs down to the dock. The bell started ringing frantically as he careened outside into the storm, which had worsened of a sudden as if even nature joined the attack against them.

Eben ran recklessly down the wet, slippery steps and onto the storm-tossed dock. Staying upright on this thing was almost worse than riding in a boat on rough water.

The sound of metal on metal made him spin, sword raised. Rynn and Sha'Li were retreating slowly, their flanks protected by a phalanx of hissing lizardmen, who appeared to be spitting some sort of black substance at their foes. Three of the soldiers were attacking Rynn, Sha'Li, and their escort, while the other three soldiers defended against the mages, who were casting spells as fast as the soldiers were able to activate their defenses. A hound snarled from somewhere inside the cave and then bounded into the doorway, filling the large opening with his stocky body.

Rynn and Sha'Li reached the steps. At a grunted command from the lizardmen, the pair turned and ran for the dock while the lizardmen closed ranks to hold the staircase. The soldiers had the high ground and pummeled the heads and shoulders of the lizardmen viciously. Only the attack of the mages from behind kept the soldiers from overwhelming their impromptu protectors.

“Eh? What's this?” a new voice shouted from behind him.

Eben spun to face this new threat. Through the slashing rain, he spied a silvery-blue-scaled humanoid standing on the end of the dock next to the bell, which had abruptly fallen silent. A Merr.

Will spoke urgently to the Merr, although Eben could not hear the conversation over the howling wind and crashing waves.

Thankfully, a boat rose out of the water just then, water streaming off it and out of it. The hull was long and pointed, albeit low to the water. The vessel looked fast but not stout enough to withstand the storm raging around it.

A dozen Merr materialized out of the water and climbed into the boat without any visible effort to heave themselves up and over the side of the vessel. How did they do that?

“To me!” Will shouted. “Hurry!”

Eben backed down the dock slowly in case Rynn and Sha'Li should be attacked again. A hand grabbed his arm urgently from behind. “Into the boat. Now,” a sibilant voice ordered.

More hands guided him backward and down as he refused to take his gaze off his friends.

“What's this?” the Merr on the dock demanded as Sha'Li reached the boat. “You bring a filthy lizardman with you?”

“We agreed upon a price, and she is a member of our party,” Will replied sharply. “Does the promise of a Merr mean nothing, then?”

The Merr hissed and jerked his head at Sha'Li to get in.

Rynn leaped into the vessel last, his balance so light and sure that the vessel barely rocked as he jumped aboard. The lizardmen defending their escape had stopped at the edge of the dock, unwilling apparently to set foot upon the heaving wooden platform. Or perhaps the dock was Merr territory. Either way, as the Merr shoved away from shore, the lizardmen grimly held their ground. When the vessel was perhaps thirty feet away from the dock, the lizardmen charged forward, shouting. Eben's last sight of them in the rain was a jumbled melee of Imperial Army tabards and green-scaled bodies rolling about in complete chaos.

Oddly, the hounds bunched in the door of the cave were looking off to the left in rapt attention. Their noses lifted to the storm, they seemed to be catching the scent of something. With a great baying of sound, they bounded down a narrow strip of rocky shoreline toward the south.

“What on Urth was that with the hounds?” Will demanded. “It's as if they caught another scent and took off after it.”

“Let us sincerely hope so,” Eben declared. He slumped in relief upon a bench seat stretching all the way across the narrow vessel. On each side of the boat, Merr manned oars, pulling strongly against the waves. How all six pairs of oarsmen were maintaining their unison, he had no idea. But with each powerful stroke, the boat leaped forward.

“Who were those mages?” Will demanded.

Rynn answered, “I probed the unconscious one's mind. Does the word ‘coil' mean anything to any of you? It was strong in his mind. Along with intent to capture us.”

“Capture us?” Rosana exclaimed. “Why?”

Rynn frowned. “I caught glimpses of a serpent. And a sword.”

“Anton Constantine?” Will asked in worry. “His mark is a serpent wrapped around a sword.”

Eben answered heavily. “I know of this Coil. It is the name of a criminal group that was headed up by our illustrious governor, Anton Constantine.”

Everyone groaned.

Raina commented, “What makes you think he relinquished control of this group just because he was ousted as governor?”

“Good point,” Eben responded. “Perhaps I should say he
is
in charge of this criminal group.”

Rynn spoke up. “So an Imperial hunter and his hounds, the Imperial Army, this Coil group, and Anton Constantine appear to want to capture or kill us. Is there anyone else I should know about?”

Raina answered reluctantly, “Well, there is a group of mages from my home chasing me with the intent to kidnap me.”

“Do not forget the Boki,” Rosana added.

Unexpectedly, their Merr captain spoke up. “Those cliffs back there mark the western border of effective Imperial control. They do not control this sea nor do they occupy the lands on the far side in any meaningful way. I do not know much of this Coil group nor of the Boki, but the Empire will not chase you across this sea without permission from Baron Occyron.”

Eben swiveled to stare at the Merr. “Even Imperial hounds will not go beyond the boundary of Dupree?”

“Well, now, I imagine dogs have no delicate sensibilities when it comes to political borders, but their handler will not venture into the west if he knows what is good for him.”

“Why not?” Raina asked curiously.

“In the first place, he would have to negotiate with my kind to cross this body of water, which might or might not happen. And then he'd have to deal with hostile elements on the western shore that are more numerous and dangerous than he and his pups can handle.”

“What kinds of hostiles?” Will asked.

The Merr shrugged. “All kinds. Some nastier than others.” The vagueness and reluctance of the captain's answer made it clear he didn't want to elaborate on the threats they might face beyond the sea.

The Merr continued, “Now. If it's Imperial hounds you're looking to lose, we might be able to help somewhat with that.”

“How?” Eben asked eagerly.

“A beastie who air scents is going to be able to track you across water. There's no telling how powerful these hounds' sniffers are, and it's possible they might even smell you all the way across the Estarran Sea. But there's no way they can sniff you under it.”

Eben stared. “Under it?”

The Merr grinned. It was every bit as disturbing an expression on his scaled features as it was on Sha'Li's. He called out jovially, “Prepare to submerge, boys. We've got air breathers aboard.”

All of the crewmen abandoned their oars except for one on each side of the vessel to steady the boat in the tossing waves. The remaining Merr unrolled some sort of clear, oiled tarp down the center of the craft and then, as one, hoisted the membrane overhead. It unrolled, revealing a row of narrow ribs sewn onto it. The sailors quickly bent the ribs and installed the ends in sockets along the sides of the boat. Most of the sailors startled him by diving overboard while one of the remaining Merr laid down a line of resin along the seam of wood and membrane, smearing it to form a seal. In short order, the boat had been turned into a watertight, airtight pod.