The Dreaming Hunt (58 page)

He noted that most of the changelings who'd joined them were mammal and reptile types. He had yet to spot any insect changelings among the Dominion, and there were only a few avarians and rakasha. Discipline seemed reasonably good. Their camps the past two nights had been as clean as could be expected for a fast-moving patrol with prisoners. Even tonight, he spied very little loitering or lounging going on.

As he sipped at his broth, he noticed Rosana surreptitiously summoning magic beneath a fold of her skirt while keeping an eye on their guards. She reached toward him.

“You first,” he hissed.

She glared at him but thankfully did not argue. She muttered under her breath, and the bruise around her right eye began to fade, and the swelling in her jaw went down. Then she reached out for him and commenced trickling healing magic into him surreptitiously.

The ache in his arm and his face subsided somewhat, and sitting cross-legged on the ground did not bother his hip so much anymore.

“Not all the way,” he breathed. “Leave me bruised.” The curs would no doubt kill Raina and Rosana if they thought the girls were healing their friends.

Rosana reached to her left and commenced healing Sha'Li. Luckily for the lizardman girl, her scaled skin did not show much by way of injury, and he expected Rosana would heal her completely.

He noticed that Raina had managed to get herself pushed to the ground very close to where Rynn lay, still trussed to the carrying pole and still unconscious. The paxan's badly dislocated shoulder joint suddenly looked like a proper shoulder again. As Will looked on, Rynn's bruises began to fade, too.

Like Rosana, Raina stopped short of healing the paxan fully. She shifted slightly, waited out a guard glancing her way, and then reached for Eben. Will would never again make fun of healers for being useless in a fight. They were worth their weight in platinum after one.

He breathed a sigh of relief at finally feeling semi-human once more. Not that it helped their predicament any. They were vastly outnumbered by Dominion changelings, who were skilled fighters one and all.

He was surprised when one of the newcomers, a badger changeling who strutted around and gave orders as if he were in charge of everyone, moved to stand over Rynn's prostrate form. The badger leaned down to tear off the blindfolds and remove the gag. “Put a sword to that one's throat”—he pointed at Raina, who was looking as disheveled as the rest of them—“and then wake up the three eyes.”

Rynn lurched awake, fighting against his bonds. He subsided quickly as he took in where they were and that Raina was being held directly in front of him with a wicked dagger to her throat.

“I will not use my powers on you if you spare the White Heart's life,” Rynn declared to the badger. “You have my word of honor.” How did Rynn know that guy was the one in command? He'd been conscious for two seconds.

The badger changeling nodded tersely and then moved away. Rynn was untied from his pole and passed a bowl of boiled boot soup, which he guzzled down. The guy must have been parched as well as famished. Raina passed Rynn her bowl of soup, and Eben passed the remains of his to Rynn, as well. Will would have shared, but he'd already finished his foul supper.

They were allowed to relieve themselves in the bushes, and the six of them huddled close to the dying cook fire they'd been deposited in front of. Frost was in the air tonight if Will wasn't mistaken. He asked Rynn low, “The Dominion fears you. Why?”

“They respect natural adaptations like mine that make warriors stronger. And they fear my ability to get inside their minds.”

Raina interjected, “You've been here before, haven't you?”

Rynn shrugged in a way that Will took to mean he had. Will leaned forward. “Where are we, then?”

“How long was I out?”

“Two days.”

The paxan glanced at the tall, narrow pine trees rising around them. “We're deep in the Quills by now. Well into Dominion territory. What direction have we traveled?”

Sha'Li murmured, “North. Always north.”

“Are they following Kerryl, or is he following them, mayhap?” Will asked.

Rynn shrugged. “Could be either. Although why he'd risk capture by the Dominion, I cannot fathom. He'll get no rescue from the Forester's Guild. The presence of a Dominion colony in Haelos is not something the Empire likes to advertise. It makes Koth look weak.”

Will sat back on his heels, frowning. “Does he recruit, or mayhap kidnap changelings for his cause?”

“Perhaps,” Rynn replied.

Eben muttered, “Will the Dominion give asylum to Kerryl and his prisoners?”

Rynn frowned. “If so, we will struggle to find them. This colony is home to thousands of people. It's the size of a margrave holding at least. There are villages, farms, encampments, roads, a port—everything a great army needs to sustain itself.”

“Thousands of Dominion?” Sha'Li echoed. “Why have they not taken over Dupree?”

One corner of Rynn's mouth turned up sardonically. “And risk drawing the full attention of Koth and its legions? That would be suicide. They grow in strength for now.”

“Where will they take us?” Raina asked low.

“I would think they will not take us to the capital. They are deeply suspicious of outsiders and will not wish for us to see anything in Rahael that we can tell about back in Dupree.”

“As if we'll ever see that place again,” Will commented bitterly.

“Oh, they'll let us go,” Rynn replied. “For a price. The Heart will ransom back the girls, and they will likely try to ransom me back to my kind. I should think they will recruit Sha'Li—and perhaps Eben, for he is young and strong.”

Will scowled. What? Did he have no value? If Aurelius were in Dupree, he would pay to get his grandson back. But he was in Koth, summoned by the Emperor, possibly never to return to Dupree. Will was completely without family, friends, or allies beyond those sitting with him right now.

Rynn leaned toward him urgently. “Listen, Will. The Dominion values strength and battle prowess above all else. If you have a chance to demonstrate your combat training, use every skill you've got. Lay waste to everyone around you with your magic and that staff of yours. Maybe, just maybe, they will let you live.”

The equine changeling came over just then and cuffed Rynn sharply in the back of the head. “You do not speak in the presence of the leader,” the changeling declared.

Will looked around in interest. What leader? On cue, a dozen changelings who all looked to be badgers—or wolverines, maybe?—came over and hoisted them to their feet. He and his friends were dragged across the clearing to another fire, this one blazing up into the night sky, obviously fed by resin-rich pine logs.

A changeling stepped forward, but unlike any other he'd seen so far. This one was taller than the others for one thing. And his skin was golden. Not like Aurelius's, but more like Sha'Li's. He was covered in tiny scales that glittered as he moved. And something was wrong with his neck, which was unnaturally long and wide. It was as if longitudinal folds of skin were collapsed along each side of his head, all the way down to his shoulders.

And his eyes … gads. They were large and gold in color with disturbing vertical black slits for pupils. He was a
snake
changeling. Surely, this could be none other than Goldeneye himself. Repulsed, Will stared, fascinated. A cobra changeling did not make for an attractive humanoid. If those folds of skin lifted and filled, they would look a lot like a cobra's hood. He did not think he wanted to see this man become agitated enough to display a hood, thank you very much.

“Kneel before the leader,” someone growled from behind Will. Heavy hands on his shoulders forced him and the rest of the party down, and Will's knees banged painfully on the ground.

“Who have we here?” the cobra changeling asked.

The porcupine changeling who'd captured them stepped forward. “My lord Goldeneye, I tracked these humanoids and brought them to you, as ordered.”

“You're telling me this sad bunch of misfits took out one of my patrols?”

The porcupine flinched. “They could not put up much resistance to me and my men.”

Will snorted mentally. He and his misfit friends had dropped over half the Dominion squad, and they'd been outnumbered by changelings better than three to one. Four to one if Raina was not counted as a combatant.

“I know the red-and-yellow symbol on the gypsy.” Goldeneye strolled over to stare down at Raina, who prudently was looking down at the ground. “But this blue and white. Are they the useless ones who do nothing in battle?”

The porcupine answered again. “Aye, m'lord. The yellow-haired human was worse than useless. Not worth the food to keep her alive. Shall I kill her?”

Will stared. Didn't they know what she was capable of? But then, if Raina's skills were measured purely for their fighting and killing potential, he supposed he could see the porcupine's point of view.

Goldeneye's almost nonexistent lips pulled back to reveal sharp teeth and a pair of long, needle-like fangs where his second incisors would normally be. Stars, was that supposed to be a smile? It was chilling to see. “Idiot humans pay best of all for the weak ones. Keep feeding her until word is sent to Briza. Find a Heart trader at the port and ask what he will pay for one in white and blue. Then make him pay double what he offers.”

One of the wolverine types bowed and murmured in acknowledgment. He must be in charge of ransoming Heart members back to the Heart. The same wolverine murmured respectfully, “And the other girl? The red-and-yellow one?”

Goldeneye shrugged. “If they pay the usual price, they may have her. These healer types are too dimwitted to be of any use to us.”

“I am not dimwitted, sir!” Rosana exclaimed.

Goldeneye's face swiveled to look at her, but the rest of his body did not move. It was eerie. “I did not give you permission to speak, gypsy.” He glared coldly at her—and stars above, she stared back!
Look away, Rosie. Look away!

“Why did you invade our lands, dimwitted child?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. A mental groan rose up from deep inside him. Goldeneye had enslaved her.

“You may speak,” Goldeneye told Rosana.

Abruptly, words spilled out of her mouth. “We did not invade. A friend of ours was kidnapped by a nature guardian, and we but followed his tracks to rescue him. We have no business with you. Release us immediately!”

Easy, Rosana,
he cautioned her mentally. Rynn might have told them never to show weakness in front of the Dominion, but belligerence would not serve them well, either.

Goldeneye moved to stand before her, and Will realized again just how large a creature the Dominion leader was. “Do not take that tone with me, dimwitted pinkskin. I will not warn you again.”

A chill chattered down Will's spine at the menace in those softly uttered words.

“Shall I kill her, my lord?” the porcupine asked eagerly.

Goldeneye's right hand whipped out so fast that Will barely saw it move. One second the porcupine stood beside his leader, and the next he writhed on the ground, his jaw broken and one side of his face smashed in. Goldeneye's hood flared, and abruptly he was all cobra and barely a man. It was possibly the most frightening sight Will had ever seen.

Will recoiled involuntarily from the violence and speed of the blow. They could never take this creature down. But then, that was the point, he supposed. The strong ruled by might and fear in these lands. And this one was the strongest of the strong.

Goldeneye's attention swiveled back to Rosana, who was staring at the ground now
,
horror written on her expressive features. “Heal him, pinkskin.”

Rosana's feet stayed stubbornly in place for an instant, but then the enslavement visibly kicked in, forcing her over to the writhing porcupine's side. She knelt beside him and passed healing into his broken face until it began to resemble its previous ugly self.

Goldeneye said briskly, “Take them to the slave pens.”

Terror shuddered through Will. In the Empire, slavery was everybody's worst nightmare.

A brace of changelings stepped forward aggressively to hustle them away when a new changeling burst into the circle of firelight. Something soft-furred, twitchy, and quick. “Bad tidings, my lord!” he cried.

Everyone stopped in their tracks, prisoner and captor alike, to stare at the youth.

“Speak,” Goldeneye hissed.

“Someone has broken into your treasure trove and stolen—” The youth's voice faltered of a sudden as if it was just occurring to him that his news might enrage its intended recipient. He took a step back. “—something of great value to you.”

“Tell me,” Goldeneye ordered.

“The ampoules of untouched water from the homeland,” the youth stammered.

Will cringed along with everyone else as Goldeneye's massive gold-scaled hood flared to its full breadth, a dark circle in the center of each flare on either side of his neck. His flat nostrils distended, his fangs bared, and a horrible hissing sound emanated from the back of his throat.
Great Green Lady, preserve them all from this beast
.

“Kerryl Moonrunner,” the Dominion leader ground out in tones of rising fury. “This was his doing!” He pointed at Will and his friends and roared in a terrible voice, “Bring those captives back to me.”

Rosana actually whimpered aloud, and Will barely refrained from doing the same.

“Do you work with him? With Moonrunner. Were you a diversion while he robbed me?”

“No, Lord Goldeneye!” Rosana all but sobbed. “I spoke true. We track him for he stole our friend from us.”

Will held his breath so hard he started to become light-headed. The snake changeling stared at Rosana as if he would strike at her any second, destroying her utterly. Without ever taking his mesmerizing, vertical-slitted glare off her, his right hand shot out. Caught the messenger by the throat. And squeezed until the changeling was a writhing, gurgling morsel of dying prey in his grasp.