The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (35 page)

The rest of the camp was tucked away for the night except for the increased patrols far outside the camp’s borders, and Gully was able to stare into the fire in solitude and think through everything that was spinning around in his mind and keeping him awake.

He wondered if it was really possible.
Could it be that my father really was the last of some sort of a royal line? Or is all this but the deluded and wishful thinking of a people that face extinction?

Gully picked up a stick, and with his elbow on his knee and his chin resting on his hand, he poked a few times at the fire. The smoke rose up and through the trees until it vanished.

What would it be like to dream an animal and then make it real from the smoke of a fire? Could my father really do as the patriarch said? Could he vanish and reappear elsewhere on no more than a tendril of smoke?
The idea would have been absurd had he not seen so many other things equally as absurd in the last few days, but which were very real.

Gully sighed as each moment brought only more questions that his father was not there to answer.

Every day he longed more and more for the man that had taught him so well, and yet, it seemed, taught him nothing at the same time.

He thought back to the dream, the dream of when he had gone to fetch water for the first time, only to find his father behind him. Gully wondered... if he had turned around but a second sooner, would he have seen his father appear behind him from nothing more than a puff of smoke?

He wondered at what an empire like Balmorea was like at its height, an entire empire filled with people and animals together. The pictures in his imagination were so fanciful as to be preposterous, and he had to remind himself again of the people in the camp all around him. People, and animals, with whom he had spent all night feasting and dancing. And telling stories of his father and how he grew up, and the pendant, too.

And now, through some unbelievable coincidence, he was considered the blood heir of the most powerful family to ever rule over their ancient empire. The weak mead from the celebration and the wild thoughts made his head hurt.

The feast had been wonderful, even as modest as it was for the limited means of the Mercher clan. Everyone was fascinated by his stories, and he would find himself telling them to groups here or there — people, foxes, bears, hawks, wolves, panthers, owls, lynxes, leopards, and more, all mixed together. And they all wanted for Gully to show them the pendant, the cut crystal of two overlapping circles inside a larger one. It even brought some of the older clan members to tears at its sight.

The only one that seemed shy and awkward about all of it was Encender. Encender had hesitantly asked Gully to affirm for him whom his father was, to describe the man, and Gully’s answers made the patriarch’s son even more uncomfortable. Probably rightly so, Gully decided at the time, given how the man had tried to murder him when they had first met. At least Encender seemed to be withholding his animosity towards him, and Gully was glad of that.

Abella Jule was timid as well, but mostly only because that seemed to be her nature all the time. She was very curious about the pendant, however, almost entranced by it. Gully had held it out for her to take and examine, but she resolutely refused, seeming to feel as if doing so would be some sort of transgression she was not willing to make.

His favorite part of the evening was a display of balmor fighting. Raybb, in both human and bear form, fought honorably, but very aggressively, with the black panther transmute that Gully had seen on his previous stay. The panther, named Aalehvan, was almost as big and strong as Gallun and Gellen were. Neither used weapons, but it was a remarkable sight to see both use their natural abilities to their best advantage. Raybb was as one perfectly coordinated fighter consisting of both bear and human. And Aalehvan would shift between panther and human form so fast as to become a blur at times. Each, without the benefit of or need for weapons, was perfectly deadly nonetheless. It made Gully very glad that Raybb had not decided to fight with him on their first meeting after all. Raybb narrowly won when his bear half managed to pin Aalehvan while his human half kept Aalehvan’s panther teeth from inflicting damage.

Through the evening, he found that the patriarch, and Exoutur and Raybb, had reverted back to treating him the same as before they had discovered his birthright. Which was to say they treated him very warmly, but hardly any different from any other member of the clan. It was a balm to him to be treated the way he had been before.

As he sat remembering, Gully caught a glimpse of one of the members of the clan, an owl, fly from one tree to another while it was on patrol. The bird dipped his head to Gully and flew on to another tree. His eyes caught Gallun’s and Gellen’s shack in the flickering firelight as the owl flew past. He wondered how the two whose home he shared would react to all of the day’s revelations. Even after having the entire clan fussing over him all through the feast, he found he missed having the two wolves nearby. He was disappointed that he would not be able to see them before he left again.

The idea of leaving the Merchers, and why he had to leave made him feel selfish for lying to the prince and feasting all night while Thaybrill was alone in an unfamiliar cabin and probably scared witless about what was going to happen to him. The feeling of kinship with the poor prince that had begun to grow seeped through him, reminding him of the responsibility he still had towards him. He poked at the fire a few more times and thought some about how to best help the prince.

Getting the prince back into Lohrdanwuld would not be too difficult when the time came, and he had been honest when he told Thaybrill that he did not want to risk it until he had spoken to Roald. Gully decided, though, that getting the prince back into the city was all he needed to accomplish. If the Domo Regent and the Lord Marshal had publicly stated that the prince had been abducted like so many others right out from within the city walls, then having the prince show up in Bonedown Square and accuse the two of them, and Chelders veBasstrolle, of being behind the disappearances would bring the conspiracy to its knees very quickly. In a matter of hours, there would be arrests, and then in a matter of days there would be hangings. And then it would all be finished and everything would be back to the way it should be.

And he need not be involved in that at all.

That plan nagged at the corner of Gully’s mind for some reason, but he couldn’t quite decide why. He finally let go and decided that this plan would be the best, and he felt somewhat better about the coming days.

He stood to go back into the shack to go to sleep. As long as the patriarch’s beloved fate was done with its surprises, then all would be well and finished, and Gully could resume his search for his father.

As he settled back onto his mat to sleep, he did something he had never done before. He begged that Vasahle would be kind to him and bring him dreams of his father and his fox, to let him feel like he was with them once again.

Gully trudged through the forest after he left the next morning, wending his way north from the Mercher camp so that he would emerge onto the East End Road and then follow it back to Lohrdanwuld. After discussing his plan with the patriarch, they agreed that this was the best route in case the soldiers Gully had attacked were watching the South Pass Road for the prince or anyone else traveling by it. The patriarch had been insistent on sending a couple of Mercher fighters with him for his protection, at least to the western edge of the forest, but Gully stubbornly refused such an escort. The camp needed protection and sentries far more than he needed guards, and it took several minutes of unyielding discussion to convince the patriarch of this.

When he departed the camp this time, every single member of the clan came to see him off, despite the drizzle of rain that had started. Such a show began to make him uncomfortable and he got away from the camp as quickly as he could.

By the time he was almost an hour from the Mercher camp, the rain was falling steadily and he began to hear the deep rumble of thunder getting nearer.

Ahead of him, Gully spotted a tree, very tall, but standing alone in the forest. Above, he could see the sparkling, glittering white light gathering in the rain clouds overhead. He approached the tree just as the blue white light of lightning poured from the cloud. It whipped and jerked as it slowly meandered through the sky until it finally reached the top of the tree. It slipped and splintered into so many fingers of pure light that crept along the branches and down the trunk towards the ground. By the time he reached the tree, the brilliant tendrils of the lightning were just above him. He reached out and placed his hand on the trunk and the lightning grabbed onto his hand and arm, caressing it with its warm, tingling touch. It felt warm and almost tickled as it slipped along his arm and down his side. The final, fading threads of the lightning spread out along the ground a short distance from the base of the tree.

Gully had seen lightning from a distance in times past, but had never managed to touch it. Roald had said before that lightning was another form of the star-send from ancestors sending their favors, sending bravery and forthrightness, to those below who would gather it in their hands. He didn’t believe that, but still it was something to feel it for himself.

The lightning dissipated, and all that was left was the feeling of warmth in the tree where Gully’s hand still lay. It certainly left behind a feeling of peace and contentment. He felt the trunk of the tree a moment more and then resumed his journey out of the forest.

The rain began to slack off and the thunder receded, but within another quarter hour of walking, a new sound reached his ears.

He turned back from the direction he had come to see two huge wolves speeding towards him, their feet pounding hard the forest floor as they ran, and their fur and muzzles matted with the black of thick and congealed blood.

Before he had any time to react, the foremost wolf leapt into the air directly at him and Gully threw his arm up to deflect the blow. The image of the wolf stuttered for a second, and then it was the form of Gallun landing on top of him, knocking him over and then pulling at him before he had any time to ward it off.

Gully started to panic and fought to push his frenzied friend off, and recoiled at the sight of the blood and hair stuck to the naked man grabbing for him.

Gallun and Gellen both managed to pull him up and almost began to drag him bodily back towards the Mercher camp, but Gully pushed his feet firmly into the ground and shouted at them, “What is this?! Why are you all bloody and half-mad?”

Gellen grabbed at Gully, physically throwing him over his shoulder to carry him back towards the camp with no attempt at explanation. Gully used his fists to push in on the backs of Gellen’s knees, causing him to fall so that he could scramble away.

Dirty and wet, confused and frightened by his friends’ behavior, Gully assumed a defensive stance and he shouted, “What in the starless sky is wrong with the two of you?! Are you hurt? Whose blood is that?”

Gallun and Gellen stood panting, their chests heaving frantically, their eyes wide and wild. Even in human form they were still covered in blood. Gully wiped the rain off of his brow as he eyed them warily. Despite being covered in blood, they did not seem to be hurt. Gully wondered whose blood was dripping off of them.

Gellen looked like he was about to attempt again to physically drag Gully back towards the camp, but Gallun’s face turned desperate.

“Hehwp!” came the single, malformed word from Gallun’s exhausted and pleading face.

Gully looked at them and then repeated unsurely, “Help?”

They both pointed back towards the camp as their chests heaved.

Gully’s blood froze. He grabbed his pack off the ground and began running back towards the camp as fast as he could go, darting around trees and jumping bushes as he ran.

By the time he got back to the camp, the pain in his side from running felt like a burning knife had been stuck deep into him. His hands were scratched and red from warding off branches and bushes that he had run through rather than dodge. He had no idea what to expect — soldiers, fires, an ambush... his mind was a stirred-up wasp’s nest of horrible possibilities.

The one thing he didn’t expect to see was what greeted him, though. Nothing seemed amiss.

The panther transmute named Aalehvan and Wyael were at the edge of the camp, waiting for them to arrive, and hurriedly led Gully on to the patriarch’s shack.

As they ran, Gully barely able to jog he was so exhausted, he asked his two escorts, “Has the camp been attacked? Is the patriarch safe?”

“No attacks, sir, but you must see. Gallun and Gellen brought something that you absolutely must know of,” said Aalehvan anxiously.

He found the patriarch pacing nervously, both human and ocelot halves walking distractedly back and forth in concert. The ocelot’s tail was swishing to and fro anxiously. Many of the clan were gathered around, but Exoutur, Encender, and Raybb all seemed to be arguing about something heatedly. The patriarch did not seem to be paying attention to the argument around him.

“Gallun... and Gellen... almost dragged me back bodily...” panted Gully, interrupting the men and trying to ignore the painful stitch in his side. “What has... what has happened?”

The patriarch said, very gravely, “As best we can tell from what Gallun and Gellen had made us understand, earlier this morning they tracked down one of the soldiers that kidnapped them. He was on his way from the Maqaran Pass and traveling back towards Lohrdanwuld by horseback. They took their revenge on him and made very sure he would never abduct anyone else ever again.”

“Oh!” said Gully, feeling relieved. “But, that is good news!” He smiled at Gallun and Gellen and said, “I only regret it was not both of the starless bastards that got to feel your jaws around their necks!”