The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (19 page)

He stopped at the foot of the steps to the townhouse and thought perhaps the next best option was to wait nearby until morning, until he saw Mariealle emerge on her first errand of the day and speak to her then. It would be risky if any of the guards caught him loitering during the night, but he needed to be sure he would catch her.

A sound behind him, a “psst,” caused him to jump. He turned back and saw the front door of the townhouse cracked open with a sliver of a face visible within. He ran back up the steps and found the young maid peeking out at him again, this time joined with another one of the maids behind her, looking concerned.

“Is she really in danger?” whispered the maid.

“Not in her own home, no, but when she is out and about. I only need to speak to her a moment, but my words must be for her alone.” He wouldn’t dare relate the message, even to the maids, out of fear of getting his beloved Mariealle in trouble for sneaking off to the woods.

The two servants conferred in whispers for a moment and the second one then ran off. The other turned back to Gully through the cracked door and said, “She’s not asleep. Go ’round to the back, to the alleyway. Do you know where it is?”

“Yes,” said Gully.

“Go there. Go to the door to the courtyard. Wait there.”

Gully sprinted down the steps and down the street to the end of the block. He wound around a side street and then down the alleyway until he was at the door in the courtyard wall he was sure belonged to the Allerdaains.

A moment later, the delicate curls and small nose of Mariealle appeared at the iron grate set into the door, illuminated by Vasahle’s pale light. Even a light scent of rosewater reached Gully’s nose through the garden gate.

“Gully!” she exclaimed when she saw whom it was. “What are you doing here?” She glanced back over her shoulder to make sure that she was alone.

Gully could not help but feel a rush of relief at seeing her in person, safe in her own home. His hands wanted to even reach through the grating of the garden gate to touch her face to make sure she really was there, but he refrained from such impudent boldness.

“Mariealle!”

Gully was about to launch into a tumble of words warning her, and probably scaring her. He stopped himself and said with more measure, “Mariealle, I am so glad to find you safe! But I came to warn you. I... uhm... I can’t go into the details as they are not for a lady’s ears, but you
must
believe me. You are in terrible danger if you go back into the woods. You must stay away from them at all costs! You should not even venture through the town without either a crowd nearby or someone you personally trust accompanying you!”

Gully could see the green in her eyes as they flashed large at his warning. She hissed, “Why? What’s happened? What did you see?”

He frowned at her and shook his head. “I do not think one such as yourself would survive so much as hearing a description of what I saw this time. Evil, wicked people, Mariealle, and unspeakable acts. That is all I will say. You must believe me when I say you must
not
go back there, no matter how careful you are!”

“Tell me, Gully! I’m not the fragile spun-glass flower you think I am!”

“Aye,” said Gully, unable to suppress a smile at her fearlessness, “I know that you are not. But this is beyond what even your bravery and cunning are prepared to handle. I do not think you would believe me if I
did
tell you. I find it scarcely believable myself, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes and put the pieces together myself. You would think me mad, and I am selfish and do not want that, goodlady. And... I am selfish and want to know that you are safe so that we may talk again soon. Will you promise me?”

Mariealle thought for a moment, sighed, and said, “You have my word, Gully. But in return, I must have your word, too. If I am in that much danger in the Ghellerweald, so are
you
. Will you promise me not to return there, either?”

“I must go back,” said Gully, who was stung by the look of reproach on Mariealle’s face. “But I know what to look for now. I know whom these people are. And I can disappear in the forest when I need to, in the space of but a second or two. I did so once already. But I must go back to get evidence of their crimes.”

“Why not tell the Kingdom Guard? Have you told Roald? Let them go find this evidence!” she asked.

“It’s more complicated than that. And it is personal to me, too. Mariealle, if this can be proven, it may well shake the Iisendom to its foundation.”

Mariealle gasped at his last statement.

“See, I’ve upset you already, and I will say no more,” said Gully, gripping the grating set into the courtyard door. “Thank you for your concern, kind, sweet Mariealle! And your trust, withal. It means more to me than all the gold in Lohrdanwuld!”

Mariealle nodded and placed a warm finger on Gully’s hand, sending a thrill through him. “Be safe, my dear thief,” she whispered, her green eyes holding his own dark hazel ones.

“I will, and you will see me again. Of this I swear!”

Gully pulled away and ran down the alleyway before he could change his mind.

All the way back to Roald’s apartment, he thought to himself over and over again,
she called me her dear thief!

Before first light, and without even lighting a candle in the corner to aid him in his preparations, Gully dressed quietly and packed a few things in his bag for his trip back to the woods. He bent down to check and make sure that his throwing knife was tucked safely inside his boot, and his hand reached to his neck to make sure his pendant was there where it was supposed to be.

He stepped over to the window, the shutters fastened open all night to allow in cooler air, and he looked out at the dark and deserted street. The task ahead of him was enormous and he felt the gravity of what he was trying to do. Even more than the size of the task, though, was the feeling that, for the first time, he had a concrete clue to what may have happened to his father. And he would not rest until he had chased it as far as he could.

When he turned back, Roald, whom he had left sleeping in the bed, was now sitting on its edge and watching him. Gully frowned at not being able to sneak out while he was still asleep.

“You make a lot of noise for a thief of your talent,” said Roald. There was little humor in his voice despite the teasing of the statement.

Gully said nothing.

“You gave me your word, Bayle,” said Roald, his eyes dulled in the meager light of the fireplace’s cooling embers. Gully flinched at his use of the name “Bayle,” which Roald would use when he wanted to emphasize that they were brothers.

“I cannot stay, Roald,” said Gully. “If I can find these two men that escaped, we can prove this evil to be true, I hope. And if I am to find them, I must track them while their path is still as fresh as possible. I have already lost too much time as it is, and I will not lose more.”

Roald stood from the bed, wearing no more than the barecloths around his waist that he had slept in. He reached out towards Gully with his hands, but Gully backed up a step, unsure what he was attempting to do. Roald sighed and reached out to him again, taking Gully’s head in his hands. He bowed Gully’s head down slightly and placed a gentle kiss on the top of it.

“Do you think I was not aware of what you would do?” asked Roald, his hands still cradling Gully’s head and he held his brother’s eyes to meet his own. “I’ve known you well enough and for long enough to know when you make a promise you have no intention of keeping.”

Gully was speechless for a moment, then said, “I’m sorry, Roald. I
must
do this.”

Roald smiled wanly as he pulled Gully into an embrace. “I know, dear Bayle, I know. Just know how much I love you, and have always loved you.”

Gully fidgeted slightly, his mind betraying him by bringing him sudden thoughts of Mariealle.

Roald sensed the unease. “I know, brother. I understand your resistance. But since I might one day lose the last of my family the way yours was lost to you, at least let me have it for the little bit of time I may. Let me have the small bit of my family that I have left, until I can have it no longer.”

Gully relented and hugged Roald back. As much as it felt like saying goodbye, he refused to let himself think of it that way and pushed the thoughts from his mind. The hurt of losing family was too great and he had no strength to suffer it again. But it was more than that. There was a tightness in his chest and a coldness in his hands; there was the fear of what he was facing. Roald may be right — he could become a victim as well.

~~~~~

The two soldiers had done a decent, if not hasty, job of hiding the remains of the campsite, but Gully knew exactly where to look for it, and exactly what to look for. It took him only a small effort to find the site again once he got back into the deep of the Ghellerweald, even with the several days that had elapsed since the events of that night.

Being very careful for the presence of other people that might surprise him, Gully spent a little time examining the signs of what had happened after the night he freed the two men. He could see the direction the two soldiers had fled empty-handed the next day, back in the direction of East End. He ignored those signs, though, as the disguised swordsmen were not the ones whom he was tracking.

He circled around to the other side of the abandoned camp to study the signs of the two men about whom he did care. He found the tree to which the two men had been chained, feeling again the sorrow at what they had been put through. He began to follow in the direction the two naked men had run in their panic. In a matter of seconds, he spotted disturbed leaves on the forest floor clearly showing two men running fast. The sun high overhead filtered through the tree canopy and illuminated tracks that led to a juniper bush with several tell-tale broken limbs, again confirming he was following true. But very shortly after that, the trail disappeared and Gully could find no indication of anything passing through, much less men in a fearful panic.

From the point where the trail vanished, he carefully ventured onward in the same general direction the men had fled, and then he began to criss-cross back and forth, fanning out farther and farther as he went, trying to pick up their trail again. It seemed to do no good, and he spent hours crossing back and forth, wider and wider, while heading in the same vague direction.

An hour and a half later, the only thing he spotted was the clear print of a wolf paw in a spot of soft earth. He studied it for a minute, a frown upon his face. He sat down to rest against the trunk of a large larch tree and began to chew on a raw chicory root he had brought with him. The task he was trying to accomplish began to feel impossible. Finding these two men became the same hopeless and yet inextricably necessary task that finding his father was. It took several deep breaths while he leaned back against the tree to renew his resolve to continue his search.

He hoped that he wasn’t too late and that he would find the confused men before the wolves did.

Several more hours passed after he resumed his search, and Gully was as deep in the northern half of the wood as he had ever been, and he was running out of daylight. He began to think about giving up for the night and settling in so he could resume at first light the next morning, but then he heard a sound farther off in the distance. It was faint enough that he could not tell what he had heard, but it set all of his senses on a sharp edge. He slowly and methodically worked his way closer to the sounds, smelling in the air as he went to see if he could glean any sense of what was ahead. The light breeze was coming from the side, though, so it gave him no additional clue as to what might be ahead of him. The sounds were beginning to sound like voices, which troubled Gully all the more. It didn’t sound like the voices of men with their tongues cut out, and that did not bode well.

A little farther along and he picked up the faint smell of smoke, which confirmed the presence of people ahead. There were no Iisenors that would camp this deep in the forest, short of himself. And possibly the men who had been committing these kidnappings. The thought of gypsies and cannibals also briefly popped into his mind, accompanied by the horrifying image of the two poor men cooking over an open fire and soon to be dinner for wild and terrible monsters of the wood.

Gully stopped to get his bearings and confirm the direction he expected the South Pass Road to lay in case he needed to escape quickly back to more familiar ground. But the very second he turned to confirm the direction, his blood froze in his veins. He came face to face with a massive brown bear only a few feet behind him. The bear was standing on its hind legs and it towered directly over Gully, almost close enough for Gully to feel the heat of the bear’s huffing breath on his head. The bear made a sound that crossed between a yowl and a grunt, and Gully lungs collapsed so he could no longer draw breath.

His mouth dropped open in abject fear, and before he could even take one step to escape, he fainted dead away into the leaves and dirt of the forest floor.

He didn’t know how long he was out, but at some point later he began to revive. As Gully’s senses slowly returned to him, he heard a voice saying, “...and don’t you tell my brother, you overgrown ball of fur! You take your orders from
me
!”

Gully opened his eyes slowly, but what he saw made him question his sanity.

There was a man with jet-black hair, barely starting to gray, standing and talking to the bear. The bear listened as if he understood the man, then crossed his arms awkwardly in front of him and huffed indignantly. If Gully didn’t know better, he would swear the bear heard, understood, and even disagreed with the man talking to him.

Gully also realized that he had been bound to a tree while he was unconscious, which caused him to panic with the thought of what had happened to the last men he had seen chained to a tree fresh in his mind. His arms were pulled back and tied around a slender trunk so that he could not escape. His feet, stretched out in front of him, were also tied together with a tight knot.