The Dreaming Hunt (68 page)

“Familiar with this color of mark is he, then?”

“Definitely.”

“Knows he of what Kendrick spoke when he called me ‘healer'?”

“Again, yes.”

“Correct am I that my healing is not like Raina's?”

Will frowned for a moment. “Correct.”

“Knows he exactly what my healing is?”

Will closed his eyes. If the expressions crossing his face were any indication, he was having some sort of argument with himself, maybe cajoling the Bloodroot part of himself to cough up the requested information.

Finally, he opened his eyes. “As part of your Tribe of the Moon training, has anyone ever taught you about taints?”

It was her turn to frown. It was a term she'd heard before. “Like bad water, I smelled?”

“That. And more.” He said hesitantly, “Mayhap taints upon spirits? I am sorry I cannot be more specific, but Bloodroot can only send me images and feelings at best.”

She shook her head regretfully. “Training in this I have none.”

“Perhaps we should get you this training. Kendrick seems to think that you will be able to reverse Tarryn's taint, if that is what her condition is. And I'm inclined to believe him. Like he says, Kerryl Moonrunner is not mad. And Bloodroot within me agrees that Kerryl is anything but mad. Even if we do not like his methods, the man is cunning and intelligent, and we would be wise to listen to him.”

Profound relief swept through her at those words. Finally. They'd seen the powerful, competent nature guardian she'd known and admired. If Kerryl Moonrunner said some great evil was coming, then she did not doubt it was. It was as if the last barrier between her and her friends had fallen. No more secrets did she have to keep from them, no more opinions keep to herself. They were all finally in agreement with one another.

On impulse, she stepped forward and gave Will a long hug. He looked staggered when she moved back. “No one tell I hugged you, or kill you I must,” she grumbled.

Will laughed. “There's no shame in caring for your family, Sha'Li.”

Family.
The word sank into her pores like fresh springwater, clean and pure. And the mark upon her cheek felt a little warmer of a sudden.

“Of something else wish I to speak, but with everyone,” she said gruffly.

Will clapped her in the middle of the back, and she hissed at him out of general principles. Laughing again, he led the way back to the clearing and the others.

Rosana had a fire going and was heating water. Sha'Li gathered a big pile of firewood while the gypsy made tea for all of them. They soaked the hardtack bread she passed out in the hot drink to soften it enough to make it chewable. It tasted like sawdust to Sha'Li, but it was sustenance. And she didn't feel like going fishing right now.

“What was it you wished to speak to all of us about?” Will asked her from across the fire.

“The cache that earlier we found.”

“What of it?” Raina asked, turning the white ring upon her finger.

“Meant to find it, I believe we were.” She hesitated and then plunged ahead. “Worked with Kerryl Moonrunner I have before. His signs, I know. In that place he was before us, and the way he cleared for us.”

Raina nodded. “I was wondering why there was something of great value to each one of us in that trunk. Only Rynn, whom Kerryl would not have known was with us, did not have a treat waiting for him in the chest.”

Rosana spoke up. “Are you saying that Kerryl Moonrunner is
helping
us?”

Sha'Li shrugged. “In his own way, yes. His motives we know not, but failure he does not wish for us. At
something
wishes he for us to succeed. Very much.”

A new voice spoke up from the shadows, startling them all. “She's right.”

“Tarryn?” Eben exclaimed. “How are you feeling?”

“Worse than death,” the kindari replied wryly.

Raina asked the elf cautiously, “Do you feel like you might transform again soon?”

Tarryn flexed her hands within the ropes binding them to her sides. “I feel fine for the moment. You will know if the change is coming because my eye will glow red.”

Eben nodded. “We saw it in Kendrick.”

“Is he safe? Where is he?” the kindari demanded.

“We talked with him,” Eben explained. “He didn't want us to rescue him. He said he wishes to stay with Kerryl to learn more of what threat he sees coming. Kendrick told us to fix you, and then he left.”

“Fool,” Tarryn spit out. Her left eye began to glow faintly, a maroon tint in her otherwise light brown eyes.

Rynn said soothingly, “Focus on your breathing, Tarryn. Inhale. Hold the air in your lungs. Breathe out.”

“My, you're pretty,” Tarryn said to the paxan. “And who might you be?”

“I am Rynn. Sworn to protect and defend your friends and assist them in their quest.”

The kindari smiled warmly. “Well met, Rynn. I am Tarryn.” She added a little bitterly, “At least for now.”

Sha'Li leaned forward. “What tell us can you of how Kerryl turned you thus?”

“It was a ritual of sorts. He had the twins, Pierre and Phillipe—they're were-rats and roundly horrible people—kidnap a speaker of alligators.”

“We cleaned up the aftermath of that kidnapping,” Will interjected. “Horrible's not the word for those two.”

“I killed one of them,” Eben volunteered.

Raina lurched. “Where? When?”

Rosana said unapologetically, “He's long past the reach of a life spell. And if we're lucky, the wretched creature will not find a place to resurrect.”

“Has a spirit approached you?” Raina demanded.

The gypsy scowled. “Nay, and he'd better not. I would kill him again the instant his spirit entered his body. I do not believe his spirit would come to me; it would sense my hostility.”

Sha'Li turned the conversation back to Tarryn's transformation. “Why did Kerryl the speaker need?”

Tarryn continued, “The speaker summoned a great alligator. Not a regular one, but some sort of scion of the Great Alligator. It was this body and spirit that Kerryl joined with mine. It looked mostly like a regular high magic ritual, except the magic was not the same. It was … green. And it worked somewhat differently.”

“Nature magic,” Raina commented. “Not much is known of it. Nature magic is shamanic and not hermetic like traditional magics.”

Sha'Li had never heard the words before, but something inside her confirmed that nature magics and the kind that Raina used were fundamentally different.

“It will likely take some kind of nature magic or shamanic effect to reverse whatever was done to Tarryn,” Raina replied.

Will glanced over at Sha'Li and said, “We may have a lead on that. Kendrick asked Sha'Li if she could remove taints, and we think this may be a skill that tribe members can learn. If we can find a tribe elder, he or she might be able to teach Sha'Li how to do it—or at least tell her how to try.”

Tarryn looked over at her hopefully. “You could fix me?”

Sha'Li shrugged. “Mayhap. Try I will, when knowing of its doing I have.”

They bedded down for the remainder of the night, half the party keeping watch while the other half slept.

Over breakfast the next morning, Will asked the party, “Do we continue tracking Kerryl? We still must recover the change water from him to take back to Goldeneye so he'll fix Rosana.”

Tarryn spoke up. “If it's the change water you want, Phillipe is carrying it in a pouch.”

That caused a flurry of activity while the dead were-rat's body was located in the woods and searched. No pouch was in evidence, and Tarryn identified the dead rat as Pierre.

Rosana announced in satisfaction, “He has not yet resurrected. The Green Lady willing, he will not at all.”

Sha'Li frowned. “How know you that?”

“His body is still here. If he had successfully resurrected, this body would have dissipated as his new body formed during the resurrection process.”

She shuddered. Bodies forming and fading. Spirits floating around and then entering bodies. She had no wish to undergo resurrection, ever. Oh, she'd been introduced to a Heartstone along with all the other youths in her clutch in a city that had a Heart house with a stone. The one time she had died, she'd been too far from a Heartstone to sense its glow, and had field resurrected with Rosana instead. By the moon, she hoped never to have to use a Heartstone.

Raina asked practically, “How are we going to track Kerryl and Phillipe now that Tarryn is with us? It's her trail we've been following all this time.”

Sha'Li answered scornfully, “A master tracker am I. Please.”

Tarryn piped up. “I also am a tracker. And I've been traveling with the man for weeks. I know his signs like the back of my hand. I can track him, but if we get close to him, you should probably tie me up and knock me out so he can't command me to change with that magical bracer of his.”

Eben nodded. “We will not let you hurt us or hurt yourself. You have my word on it.”

Sha'Li thought that was a rather optimistic promise for the jann to be making. But Tarryn was effectively the only family he had until such time as he found his sister. She supposed it made sense that he would lay down his life for the kindari. It was Eben's way. Loyal, he was.

Will said stoutly, “Have at it, madam trackers. The day's a-wasting.”

*   *   *

Raina was exhausted by the time they stopped for the night to make camp. The previous night's casting had taken a lot out of her, and she needed more food and sleep if she was going to recover fully.

Thankfully, Kerryl and his companions were sticking to solid ground as they moved deeper into the Swamp of Angor which made following them slightly less miserable than before. The nature guardian was moving steadily southeast, which led Sha'Li and Tarryn to believe that he had some destination in mind. Tarryn also reported that Kerryl had mentioned searching for something important out here. He hadn't known where it was, though, and had needed the alligator speaker to take him to it.

There had been an alarming development when the trackers spied what they thought might be tracks of a pack of enormous wolves—or Imperial hounds. The last thing they needed was to be attacked by a hunter and his hounds out here. There would be nowhere to run or hide this time, hampered as they were by the swampy terrain.

But the tracks had crossed theirs at right angles, and Sha'Li and Tarryn agreed that the beasts had been moving away from them. Stars willing, the creatures were following the scent of some other quarry and not Eben's.

Raina stood first watch with Rynn and Sha'Li and was ready to drop by the time she finally lay down in her bedroll. Still, worry over Kerryl's plans and of being attacked by him and his beasts made settling down to sleep difficult. Not to mention those cursed hounds. And who knew what other creatures were out there, waiting to attack them?

She drifted off to sleep and was shocked to find herself walking through a familiar white mist. If phantasms and other dream creatures hid in the fog swirling around her this night, they did not reveal themselves to her. She walked for only a few minutes before familiar green grass appeared below her feet. Gawaine's grove took shape around her, as verdant and perfect as ever.

Tonight, he seemed to be waiting for her. He took a quick step forward when she appeared, saying, “There you are. Thank you for coming.”

“You summoned me?” she asked, confused.

He smiled a little. “I did my best to call you.”

“What can I do for you?” she asked politely.

He looked down pointedly at her right hand, and his face lit up. “So. You did find my signet ring!”

She looked down at the white ring clasping her middle finger. “I thought it was yours. It felt like you.”

“Indeed. It is carved from the horn of Cerebus. My steed and friend. He was … is … the king of the unicorns. A magnificent creature. I should like to see him again one day.”

“How did you know I found your ring?”

“Mine began to glow. And then it began to feel like you.” He held his hand out, and on the middle finger of his right hand, an identical copy of her ring clasped his finger. His ring was giving off a faint glow that grew brighter as his ring approached her version of it.

“Where is my crown?” Gawaine asked. “It's not with you.”

“I left it with Aurelius Lightstar for safekeeping. He's the mage's guildmaster of Dupree and a friend. I was worried that I might lose it if our travels did not go well.”

“Have they gone well?”

“I would call it a mixed experience. We have attracted attention we could do without in the form of Imperial hounds. And we had an unfortunate encounter with the Dominion leader, a cobra changeling calling himself Goldeneye. Rosana is enslaved by him, and Kendrick does not wish to be rescued. But we draw close to Kerryl Moonrunner. He seems to be leading us to something.”

Gawaine's face lit with comprehension. “Indeed, he does.”

“Can you tell me what it is?”

“You will find it soon enough. And it will be self-explanatory.”

Her stomach growled, and she frowned, embarrassed. “How can it be that I'm hungry in a dream?”

“You must have gone to sleep hungry. I can feed you here, at least. But you will still need sustenance when you wake. Come.” He waved his hand, and a table appeared, laid out with all manner of food and delicacies.

“Ooh, raspberries! My favorite!” she cried. A great pile of the delicate, succulent berries sat before her.

“How have you been?” Gawaine asked after she'd eaten a bit. “I've been worried about you. When you gave away my crown, I lost my connection to you and could not find you.”

He could track her through his crown? “Were you watching me?”

“Not exactly. I was able to check in on your dreams from time to time before.”