The Dreaming Hunt (48 page)

He turned to wave a farewell to the Merr crew, but the vessel was already a speck on the horizon, skimming across the waves like a low-flying bird.

He turned back to study the lay of the land. Raina and Rosana had already started up the dune, slogging through the loose sand and laughing while Rynn hurried to catch up and get in front of the two healers. Will scowled at the display of chivalry—or security consciousness. Either way, it irritated him.

Taking advantage of his long legs, he chased after the girls. He reached the top of the sandy ridge a few steps behind Rosana. From here they had a magnificent view of the sea and of long, unbroken lines of cliffs stretching away in both directions.

“Isn't it beautiful?” Rosana breathed.

“Not half as beautiful as you,” he declared gallantly, sweeping her up into his arms. They'd done it. They'd escaped the jaws of the Empire's hounds and could finally resume their quest. He felt light. Free. He drew Rosana close to kiss the laughter from her lips.

Sha'Li muttered sourly from somewhere nearby, “When finished swapping spit you are, proceed we shall.”

Will set Rosana away from him regretfully but grinning unrepentantly. “You're just jealous that no one swaps spit with you.”

“Kill you my spit would, human,” Sha'Li retorted.

Raina, who'd come up behind him with Rynn, asked curiously, “Does that mean lizardmen don't kiss?”

Sha'Li scowled in as close to embarrassment as Will had ever seen from her. “Kill us our own poisons do not.”

Of course, they all had to tease her mercilessly after that. The party set out to the east, away from the shore at their backs. Picking up the trail of Kerryl, Kendrick, and Tarryn was a long shot, but it was all they had. Stars willing, they had left all their pursuers far behind and headed in the entirely wrong direction.

The terrain undulated gently, blanketed in knee-high grasses. The winds coming off the great sea at their backs scoured the coast bare in spots, exposing rocky outcroppings that were their only real impediment to travel. A hardy tree here and there dared to stand against the elements, but those were twisted, stunted things that hardly resembled proper trees. Will thought that perhaps his disdain for the overgrown bushes that passed for trees in this place might come from Bloodroot. Or mayhap it came from his own upbringing in the great hickory stands of the Wylde Wold.

Their clothes dried quickly in the brisk breeze for which he was grateful. Even on a pleasant late summer day, damp clothing made for an unpleasant chill.

It was perhaps midafternoon when Rynn announced, “Storm's blowing in.”

A storm? On this fine day? Will looked to the west, and sure enough, great, gray thunderclouds were rolling across the sea toward them. They needed shelter. But where?

Eben, who was on point ahead of them at the moment, called out, “I see a decent-sized outcropping ahead. If nothing else, we can shelter in its lee.”

The upthrust of granite turned out to be the size of a cottage, and when Will and Eben rigged their tarp as half roof, half wall with the stone at their backs, it made for a passable shelter. The girls gathered what matted moss and dried animal dung they could find for a fire.

Rynn disappeared while the others hastily made camp, and fat drops of rain were starting to splat against the tarp before he finally came running back over a rise a few hundred feet east of them.

A lumpy sack bounced around on his back, and he grinned triumphantly as he ducked under the tarp. Will, who was sitting next to Rosana, felt her body melt a little as the handsome paxan's smile lit his face. Good thing Rosana had laid that big kiss on him earlier or he might have had to kill Rynn today.

“What've you got there?” Eben asked the paxan.

“I found a peat bog. Dug up as much as I could carry.”

Will wrinkled his nose as Rynn reached into his bag and pulled out a brick-sized block of the stuff. It stunk to high heaven, like concentrated pig dung.

Sha'Li exclaimed, “Sick I may be if we have to burn that foul mess!”

Rynn grinned at her. “But warm you shall be while you puke, my friend.”

Sha'Li froze, staring at the paxan. Will mentally shook his head. The lizardman girl would catch on eventually. They all considered her family.

The peat block Rynn added to the tiny fire the girls already had going did, indeed, give off a horrible stench. But it also gave off a decent measure of heat as the rain began to fall harder and the wind howled around them. Both boulder and tarp did their jobs, though, and protected them from the worst of the storm. They huddled shoulder to shoulder around the fire, holding their hands to the warmth and passing the time by speaking idly of their homes.

Will was surprised to realize that all of them had lost their families or left them behind in some irrevocable way. They were each alone in the world. It dawned on Will that this was his chosen family. They might be very different, but they were united in a shared cause, shared experiences, and a shared set of beliefs.

Rosana passed out strips of dried fish they'd bought in Marhul, and Will gnawed on the salty stuff thoughtfully. “What happens after we wake the—”

Raina cut him off sharply. “Will!”

He glanced up, startled, and then looked guiltily in Rynn's direction. “Oh. Sorry.”

The paxan took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. “I know you all are reluctant to trust me. But if Imperials catch me, they will rip my third eye out and torture me until I go mad as an example to all other paxan not to let my kind live. I have no love for Koth. And I have sworn to defend and protect all of you with my life.”

Will muttered, “What harm would it do to tell him? If he stays with us, he'll find out, anyway.”

Raina's gaze shifted to him. An entire unspoken conversation took place in her worried eyes. Gawaine had told the two of them to trust no one. To tell no one. Did they dare take this quiet paxan into their confidence? Aurelius had trusted Rynn enough to send the paxan along as their bodyguard.

Will felt the same indecision he saw in Raina's eyes. “It's up to you,” he told her aloud. “If he's going to die to protect us, he has a right to know why.”

She stared at him for a moment more and then nodded in decision. She said, “Rynn, have you ever heard a legend of the Sleeping King who will wake one day?”

“The one where he comes back in his people's moment of greatest need to save them from the terrible evil threatening to destroy them all?” he answered.

“That's the one.” She took a deep breath. “It turns out the legend is true.”

Rynn leaned back against the rock wall at his back. “Indeed?” he replied mildly enough.

Raina described to Rynn of how the party had gone searching for the Sleeping King and ultimately found his resting place. As she retold the tale of their tribulations and deaths before they'd reached their goal, all the misery and fear and debilitating sickness that had finally overwhelmed Will came rushing back. And to think that the worst of their quest might still lay before them.

No. It did not bear thinking about. He was reasonably warm and dry, he did not feel sick, Bloodroot was quiet within him today, and Rosana was cuddled up against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. This moment was enough for now. Tomorrow would bring whatever challenges it willed, and he had no control over what came.

Rynn was even quieter than usual after the telling of the tale, commenting only, “You all have been busy, haven't you? No wonder the dream plane is in an uproar.” At least the paxan didn't declare them all mad or delusional and leave them then and there.

Will took the first watch as the others settled down to get what sleep they could, huddled as close to the fire as they could get without being singed. The rain pattered quietly against the tarp now, and the darkness was heavy with no moon or stars to light the night. He put another block of peat on the fire to combat the sharp chill that followed the rain, reluctantly grateful Rynn knew how to find it.

He pondered the question Raina had stopped him from asking earlier. What would happen if they managed to wake the Sleeping King? Would there be a war? Ragtag armies of rebels clashing against the great Imperial legions? He'd seen the common folk of Hickory Hollow fight, and they could not even fend off a single orc raid. Granted, the Boki were formidable warriors. But so were the Emperor's soldiers.

If only the Boki would turn on the Empire. They'd be a powerful ally.

Allies. That would be the key. The Sleeping King would need allies aplenty. After all, his own army had been dust for centuries. But who would stand with a forgotten king against the might of Koth—

He spotted movement in the darkness. What predator would be out hunting in this terrible weather? The prey animals would all be hunkered down in their burrows, safe and dry tonight. There it was again. A tiny pop of movement as if some creature peeked over the crown of the rise some fifty feet ahead of him.

Normally, he would ignore such a thing. It could be just a fox out looking for mice and cautious of the human intruders into his domain. But tonight, Will's senses sharpened exponentially more than they should have at the sight of a fox.

He surreptitiously reached for his staff and loosened the ties on his cloak. If he leaped to his feet, he would leave its encumbering folds behind. There it was again, some forty feet to the right of his last sighting. That was quick for such a large movement. Unless there was more than one creature out there.

He reached out ostensibly to stir the fire with a long stick, but instead poked Eben across the fire. With his left foot, he nudged Rynn, as well. Both men's eyes popped open alertly and they stared at him questioningly.

He muttered from behind unmoving lips, “Something's just beyond the ridge. Several somethings. And they're being stealthy. Could be a pack of wolves, or could be something else.”

Rynn nodded infinitesimally and rolled over, pretending to still be asleep. After about a minute, Will spotted another tiny shadow shifting where it should not be along the ridge.

“Wake the girls,” Rynn breathed. “Ready yourselves for a fight, but don't be obvious about it.”

 

CHAPTER

24

Gabrielle pulled a gray, woolen cloak closer around her. The fabric was rough and plain, but it warmed her against the chill of the night and the fog lying thick over the lake. The bottom of the narrow kayak in which she sat was thin and chilled from the water cupping it close.

A lantern cast light mayhap a dozen yards ahead of the fragile vessel. Just enough to see the swirling tendrils of mist clutching at them. How the boatman knew his way, she could not fathom. Somewhere in the middle of this hidden lake lay a hidden island, and on it lived a hidden child. And it was her purpose this night to keep that child hidden. But to do so, he must leave this place and go where the Empire could not find him. An Imperial hunter and his hounds, trained to seek out Children of Fate, tracked the boy's scent only a few days behind her.

A sense of traveling into some nether region, neither life nor death, clutched at her. This place was ancient, infused with magics older than time. The mist itself felt magical caressing her cheeks, vaguely malevolent. An urge to order the oarsman to row faster nearly overcame her. But fear of what lay beyond the fog stilled her tongue. An ill night, this.

“We's almost there, m'lady.”

“Please. No titles for me. I'm just Mistress Gabby.” It was terrifying and exhilarating to leave behind her rank and the protections it offered. She gloried in being free, if only for a few hours, to act and think as she willed without fear that the Emperor would, at any moment, peer into her mind and pluck out her secrets.

The prow of the flimsy vessel scraped gravel, and her guide leaped ashore, taking his lantern with him. Darkness closed in around her, choking her.

“Take my hand now, mistress. Wouldn't want ye goin' fer a swim in that 'eavy cloak. Down ye'd go, ye would. Straight to the bottom o' the Hidden Lake.”

She shuddered at the thought of death by drowning. “You'll wait here while I fetch what I came for?” she asked anxiously.

“Aye. Me and my boat'll be right 'ere. Be quick about it, though. We must be back afore dawn if'n ye wish to keep your errand secret.”

She jumped for the edge of the lake but missed, and her foot splashed into icy, ankle-deep water. She stumbled, but the sturdy dwarf holding her hand righted her before she could fall and test his prediction of death by cloak.

She turned to face the island but could make out no details in the pall of mist hanging over the place. Cautiously, she moved farther ashore alone. A tingle of magic passed across her right palm, and she rehearsed battle magic incants that she hadn't used since she'd learned them decades ago. But she was careful to keep her hand tucked inside her cloak and out of sight as she proceeded up the gravel strand.

“Who goes there?” a voice called out of the darkness ahead.

“A friend. I was delayed by the storm earlier and am arriving late. I am expected.”

“Who ye be visitin', then?” The voice was slurred as if its owner had been swilling ale for hours.

She bristled for an instant at being questioned so closely but then recalled that she was Mistress Gabby tonight, and the watchman but did his duty, even if he was too drunk to be of any use in an actual attack. “I've come to see a boy. He bears an hourglass mark upon his forehead. Do you know where I might find him?”

“Dafydd's but a lad. He'll be long abed.” A long belch, and then the voice added in surly tones, “Come back on the morrow if'n ye be wantin' a reading from the boy.”

“It is not a reading I want. I have urgent news for him and his family that cannot wait.”

“Ahh. News is it, then? From whence and wherefore?”

“Please, sir. My errand is urgent. If you could just point me to where the boy and his kin live, I would be most grateful.”