The Dreaming Hunt (51 page)

The other members of their little party seemed to be having as much trouble keeping straight faces as she was. As Flora disappeared into the kitchen, they piled onto the bales of straw and managed to get seated before they all burst into gales of laughter. Rynn blushed beet red, which only made them all laugh the harder.

“Behave,” Rynn finally muttered. “She returns.”

Raina was impressed by the paxan's concern for the feelings of their hostess. At his core, he was a kind man, and she admired that. Flora set mugs of what turned out to be sour, well-watered ale in front of them, and she departed for the kitchen at Rynn's polite request for whatever food the house might have to offer.

In a few minutes, wooden boards loaded with a hard orange cheese, dry sausage, and hot, crusty bread were put before them. Raina dug in eagerly. The food was shockingly tasty. Or mayhap she'd been eating stringy game and dry traveling rations for so long that any real food tasted like manna from heaven. They'd nearly finished their meal, and she'd nearly remembered what it felt like to have a full belly when the front door opened and a cloaked and hooded figure blew in on a gust of rain.

Her own right hand started to tingle as magic danced across it, and she noted that Will's hand moved casually to his staff, which was leaning against the wall beside him. The others shifted slightly in their seats, as well.

The newcomer paused to gaze around the pub, and then he headed straight for the back corner of the room where she and her companions were seated. Rynn rose from his seat, and Eben followed suit. The two of them together formed a wall of muscle and sinew, and she had to lean sideways to see around them.

The man pushed his hood back, and she was startled to see a third eye—closed—in the middle of his forehead. Another paxan. She knew Rynn well enough to see his shoulders go rigid. Odd. Why would he be tense about meeting another of his own kind?

“Greetings, sir,” Rynn said cautiously.

“And to you, traveler. Name's Olar. What brings thee and thine to these uncivilized lands?”

Rynn glanced around the room. “This seems quite civilized to me, good sir.”

Raina noticed Flora puffing with pride in the kitchen door as she looked on with interest to the conversation. Now that Raina took notice, everyone in the room seemed to be taking deep interest in how Rynn would answer the newcomer's question.

“We're just passing through,” Rynn said easily.

“Not many travelers pass through this way,” Olar replied.

Rynn asked with just the right amount of casual disinterest, “How long has it been since
any
other travelers came through here?”

“Couple weeks,” Flora answered helpfully from across the pub. “Two men. Skinny, weaselly sorts, they was. Not brawny nor bonny like you.”

Raina was disappointed. That did not sound like Kerryl Moonrunner and Kendrick.

“Would you like to sit with us?” Rynn invited Olar.

Now why would Rynn do that? Intrigued, she watched the paxan pull up a bundle of straw and join them. Silently, Sha'Li pushed one of the wooden boards of cheese, sausage, and bread toward their guest. He nodded his thanks and nibbled at a hunk of the bread.

He turned to Rynn. “Do I recognize you? You have the look of—”

Rynn cut him off. “I would recall you if we had met, and I do not believe we have. Let me formally introduce myself.” He held his hand out to the other paxan.

Olar took his hand, and Raina could swear the two men shared some sort of silent communication. What did they have to share in private? They released hands, and Olar's tone of voice was noticeably more respectful when he asked, “Where do you go, and how may I help you, young travelers?”

“Why would you help us?” Will asked suspiciously.

“Why not?” Olar shrugged. “One of my kind travels with you as a friend. That is enough for me.”

Rynn spoke low enough that his voice would not carry beyond their corner. “We track a friend whom we hope to catch up with. He has been heading steadily north.”

“That'll take you into Dominion lands. As soon as you reach the Quills, you enter their territory. They claim the Quills and everything north of it.”

Raina jolted. She'd never heard of any permanent Dominion settlement anywhere on Haelos. “How long have they been there?” she blurted.

Olar shrugged. “Long enough to build cities and establish roads and government and to breed native changelings. Several generations at a minimum.”

“Breed native changelings?” Sha'Li asked.

Olar took a long pull at his mug of ale. “Indeed. They bring magical waters with them from their home on Kentogen. These waters transform a humanoid of any race into a changeling of whatever animal is used in the ritual. The Dominion has long practiced making changelings of the local, native species of creatures when they invade a place. It ensures that their troops are suited to the climate, environment, and terrain. Brilliant strategy, if you think about it.”

“How did they get over here?” Will asked. “Kentogen is across a great ocean from Haelos.”

“Don't know much about Dominion, do you, children?” Olar commented.

Will scowled, and Raina caught herself bristling before she recalled that paxan could live many hundreds of years. Any human must seem like a child by comparison.

Their paxan guest continued, “The Dominion creates floating islands by carving off a chunk of land from Kentogen. They live on the island's resources while they float to their destination. It's slow, but they can move thousands of troops and colonists all at once. Makes for one whale of an invasion force.”

“So there's an entire Dominion island sitting off the coast of Haelos?” she asked. She'd seen the best maps of Haelos that her father could lay hands on, and she'd never seen any island next to the northeast coast of the continent.

“No, young healer. It was destroyed some time ago.”

“How?”

The paxan frowned. “I always assumed the Empire blasted it, but I don't actually know for certain. That's a good question. If you meet Goldeneye, you should ask him.”

“Goldeneye?” she echoed questioningly.

“Leader of the Dominion in Haelos. Golden cobra changeling.
Not
a man to tangle with. He's related to one of the Great Beasts of Kentogen and has powers beyond those of any normal changeling I have ever seen.”

“What sort of powers?” Will asked.

“For one thing, he can attack people by merely looking at them. Beware of making eye contact with him. And of course, he is the strongest fighter in all of Rahael. He will rule until someone else can defeat him and take his place.”

Sha'Li sat up a little straighter. She must like the idea of a scaled reptile changeling being in charge of all the furry warm-blood changelings.

“What is Rahael?” Rosana asked.

“It is the Dominion colony you will enter if you continue northward. It lies on the Barbed Coast and is a great, sprawling place.”

“Do only changelings live there?” Sha'Li asked eagerly.

“Stars, no. They have slaves of all races, and they do allow a few outsiders to live and trade among them. But it is a hard life for any who make a home there. They trust no one and live by rule of the strongest. Show the slightest weakness and they will crush you.”

Raina shuddered. It sounded horrible.

Olar shrugged. “But you know what they say. He who hates my enemy is my ally. They hate the Empire as much or more than our kind.” He lifted his chin in Rynn's direction.

Rynn replied grimly, “Not all of our kind oppose Koth.”

“Ahh, but your kind do, now don't they, enlightened one?”

Enlightened one.
Was that some sort of paxan title for the open-eyed of their kind? Whatever it was, its use sent Rynn to his mug of ale for a long drink. There was no way he was drinking that swill for enjoyment. He was rattled by Olar's use of the title. Or mayhap it was Olar's bluntness that discomfited Rynn. Either way, she was amused.

When Rynn finally emerged from the mug, he asked, “And what brings
you
to these remote lands, friend?”

“I seek ways to raise all of our race to your far-seeing state.” Olar gestured toward his own closed eye. “If you have time to tarry, I would relish speaking with you at length. Your kind are passing rare, and I have not had much opportunity over the years to ascertain the full extent of your kind's capabilities.”

Rynn's expression and body language closed up tight, announcing clearly that the man presumed too much. Raina watched him closely as Rynn toyed with a piece of bread, tearing it into crumbs. Didn't like being a specimen, did he? She couldn't blame him. People sometimes treated her the same because of her gift for magic. Was that why he'd left Mindor and come to Haelos with Phinneas, his Oneiri mentor?

Eben surprised her by answering for Rynn. “Sadly, sir, we do not have time to tarry. Another time, mayhap.”

Raina studied her jann friend with interest. His caramel-colored skin bore a flush that had little to do with his elemental striations. Eben, too, must know the burn of being an outsider and a freak. His compassion was admirable. So much of her life, she had been petted and protected, surrounded by family and friends. She was still coming to know the full pain and loneliness of having no home. Although Eben had been given safe shelter by Leland Hyland, she could imagine that it hadn't really felt like his own family or his own home. Eben and his sister had grown up among humans who had no idea what it meant to be jann.

Her gaze swiveled to Sha'Li. The lizardman girl was similarly a stranger among humans. Maybe that explained why Sha'Li and Eben had become good friends and seemed more at ease with each other than with the rest of the party.

The pub's door burst open on a blast of howling wind and swirling rain. The weather had gone from miserable to horrible outside. A young man dressed as a forester stepped in and shook himself off. Droplets of water flew in all directions, causing an outcry from those near him.

He caught his breath enough to pant, “I have a … report from south of here … sent by carrier pigeon. Strangers come this way. Two parties. Soldiers. A brace of giant dogs.”

“What kind and how many?” Olar bit out.

“No room on a tiny slip of parchment for more details than that,” the fellow replied.

Eben lurched to his feet first, but Raina and nearly everyone else in the pub were not far behind. Bales of straw got knocked over, and cloaks swirled every which way.

“How close?” Rynn asked tersely.

“Bird flew for under an hour, so less than fifty miles. The way I hears it, them Imperials move fast and don't stop much to rest. Maybe they took shelter from the storm, but my bird came on, anyway.”

Olar grasped the man's forearm and murmured in gratitude that mirrored what Raina was feeling. She helped Rosana wrap the remaining food quickly in a cloth, and they stuffed it in their pouches as Will and Eben buckled on their weapons and Rynn tossed coins on the table.

They stepped outside into sheets of blowing rain. The customers of the pub were dispersing fast in every direction, which worked to their advantage. Their tracks would be difficult to distinguish from everyone else's. Unless, of course, those elemental hounds were on Eben's trail again.

“Come with us?” Rynn offered Olar.

“Nay. I've my own path to follow. Safe travels to you, young friends. Look out for Rynn and keep him safe, will you?”

Raina replied, “I think it is he who will keep us safe, but we all look out for one another, sir.”

Olar gave her a short half bow and then whirled and took off running between the pub and the hut beside it.

“We must go,” Eben said urgently. “Those cursed hounds will be upon us in no time.”

The challenge now would be to stay ahead of the Imperial hounds and the soldiers accompanying them, and maybe even find Kendrick before they went too deep into Dominion lands and had to tangle with that dangerous bunch. Once more, she felt as if they'd jumped out of the stew pot and into the fire.

*   *   *

Over the next few days, the terrain grew rockier and the hills steeper and more continuous. When no elemental hounds leaped out of the wood to attack them, Eben gradually began to sleep easier. They circled well clear of a few isolated settlements, mostly squalid clusters of holdings scratched out of the dirt. From afar, the settlers looked like hard people with suspicious countenances. Not that he blamed them.

One night, the party jerked awake to the sound of wolves howling. Rynn, whose turn it was on watch, murmured that the beasts were not close and that all was well. Except when Eben fell asleep, he dreamed of a pack of Imperial hounds tearing him limb from limb while he screamed. He woke to Sha'Li's hand clamped over his mouth and Will shaking him.

The nightmare brought back full force his sense that those cursed hounds were stalking him with the intent to do in fact exactly what he'd dreamed of. He could feel their hot breath on his neck every minute of the day. He was unaccustomed to fear, despised it, but could do nothing to rid himself of it.

Matters had not been helped when Rynn casually mentioned that psionic hounds actually consumed their victims, absorbing their victim's psionic powers into themselves in the process. Surely, elemental hounds did something similar.

“We're out of water,” Rosana announced one morning. “We must find more and soon.”

Will answered practically, “We can always veer back to the last village and fetch water from their well.”

Not a prospect Eben relished. The fewer people knew they were out here, the better.

“Unhealthy was that place. Thirsty I would go before drink their water I would. Bathe in it I would not,” Sha'Li announced. She'd spent a fair bit of the morning complaining under her breath about how itchy and dry her skin was with no water available to soak in. She seemed capable of going for some time without a bath, but the lizardman girl most assuredly did not like doing so.