The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (40 page)

KATE PUSHED THE
poor mare beyond kindness, miles from the harbor town. She couldn’t believe she got away so easily. The hooves thrummed the rocky surface casting sprays of gravel in their trail. Kate pressed toward the forest in the distance. She would feel more covered under the dense canopy of leaves.

The escape plan had gone off without a hitch. She enlisted the help of the first mate, who dressed her as a sailor, put a potato sack in her arms, and stuck her in a line of other sailors exiting the ship with various goods to trade. No one suspected she wasn’t a hired hand. The crew thought she was from the land crew and the land crew thought she was from the ship’s crew. She carried her sack of potatoes straight to the stables, purchased a horse with most of her coins and rode out of town as just another traveling Joe.

Gregory might suspect her treachery, and he would definitely know where she was heading as soon as he saw the smashed comport, but at least he wouldn’t have a visual map of every significant choice she made on this flight to freedom until he got back to Dragon Castle and she hoped by then it would be too late.

The mare’s breaths rasped and gurgled, and she trailed sweat like a faucet. Kate slowed her to a trot, then let her walk. She came to a stream and decided to let the horse rest. She led her to the water and coaxed her to drink, slowly, then removed her saddle and tethered her to a sapling at the stream’s edge near a group of tender shoots.

The sun would set soon and Kate did not want to give away her location with smoke signals or a pyre, so she put on an extra shirt and huddled under the saddle blanket for warmth.

Her heart was still raw from the revelations of the last few days, but hope had blossomed. She held onto the idea that Corey was coming. She yawned and leaned against the boulder. She would be in his arms very soon.

She was in his arms now. Corey smiled into her eyes and spoke the words she most wanted to hear. “I forgive you.”

“I have loved—I have—I—” She couldn’t choke out the words that were so hateful to her. She had not loved him for a thousand years. She had given up on him. At the first sign of trouble she had believed a lie. She had believed a heinous lie that could have never been true. It only took the bare minimum amount of proof and she broke faith with him.

She looked down at his hands on her arms. They began to glow like lava, and where they touched her they left molten flames that covered her body and tormented her with their holiness.

“Corey, I’m burning!” she screamed and wiped furiously at the fiery glow on her skin.

“Yes, you are being purified,” he spoke in dulcet tones of an angel.

“I’m afraid!” She reached for him, but his hands burst into flame, so she backed away.

“Come home to me.”

Kate smelled smoke and startled awake. She had fallen asleep against the boulder, but the smell of smoke had not been in a dream. She could smell it now.

She stood up and sniffed the air, then climbed on top of the boulder and scanned the plain. In the distance, far away, she could see the flicker of a campfire and wondered if Gregory already had a search party after her.

She filled her flask in the stream, mounted up and moved east toward the forest.

The more distance she put between her and that campfire, the better she felt, but the moon was not up yet and it was extremely dark. Taking it slowly, for fear she would walk the horse right over the edge of a cliff, they picked their way over the black shale, one step at a time until the dark forest loomed in front of them.

Kate stopped the horse in front of the trees and peered into the black woods. Darker than dark, it seemed menacing and silent. Chills crept up her spine and across her arms. The horse back stepped and shifted. Kate reached down and patted her neck.

“Okay, girl. What’s behind us is far worse than what is ahead. Let’s go.” She hoped her words were true.

She nudged the horse’s sides and they crept forward into the black. They pushed through a hedge of bracken and a sudden flurry of tiny objects pelted out of the brush and into the sky. Kate let out a stifled squeal of surprise, then held her hand over her chest as her heart thrummed like a hummingbird’s wings.

“Gah!” She drew a long shuddering breath and pressed on into the darkness. They picked their way through the forest for the most of the night until they came to a break in the trees. Kate cast her ears ahead and discerned a roaring sound in the distance but it seemed to come from below. She couldn’t see anything so she decided to wait the few hours until dawn illuminated the path.

She tethered the horse, but left the saddle on just in case a quick escape was needed. Then she settled against a boulder and fell asleep.

In the morning she woke to a glorious but disheartening sight. They had stopped a mere three feet before a perilous drop into an angry white frothing river. Rapids tore through the deep ravine and cascaded into a dizzying waterfall a mere twenty five yards from where they stood. Kate looked behind her and noted the forest bordered the drop. Had they wandered a few feet to the right during the night they would have plunged to their deaths.

For some reason, this did not send her into a fit of tears. It made her more determined than ever to get back to Lumisfere and Corey. She snatched the reins of the horse and began the slow descent into the gorge, carefully picking a path that she and the horse could manage. Rocks broke away under their feet and plummeted to the basin below. Kate’s heart hammered with each misstep. The pace was slow and onerous.

To make matters worse, a light drizzling rain began to whisper to the ground around them. Within minutes the treacherous path became a slippery slope that threatened death with each step.

Kate placed one foot in front of the other. Every foot placement was a life or death decision. Determination sprouted in Kate’s craw and grew into a mammoth beast with every inch of her descent into the gorge.

She glanced back at the horse. Her foot slipped and she careened over the edge of the cliff, feet dangling above jagged rocks and a deathly drop. The reins scorched her sweaty palms as she slipped down the length of them. She held onto the leather straps with every ounce of strength she could muster.

“Oh God,” she cried and ran her feet along the side of the cliff trying to make purchase against the slippery stones.

The horse planted her hooves into the cliff and lowered her head. Kate’s foot brushed against a rock jutting out of the wall. She steadied against it and wrapped the reins around her wrists.

“Heigh!” she bellowed at the horse. “Heigh!” The horse took a step backward and tugged on the reins, struggling against Kate’s weight. Step by step the old mare pulled Kate back to the ledge. Kate collapsed into the rock strewn mud and laugh-cried into the trail.

“You.” She shoved wobbly arms into the mud trail and heaved herself up to sit beside the horse’s front legs. She pressed her mud caked cheek to the forearm. “Beautiful.” She breathed heavily. “Creature.”

She climbed up the horse’s leg and pressed her head against the forelock. “What’s your name, darling?” She rubbed both sides of the horse’s neck. “A horse with no name? We have to fix that. I am going to call you—Awen.” Kate huffed a laugh and slapped the side of Awen’s neck affectionately. “That sounds like a brave girl. Do you like it, Awen?”

The horse snorted and Kate chuckled, and then turned to face the daunting task in front of her. After she caught her breath, she resumed the dangerous descent, inch by inch, never placing her weight without testing it first. It took half the day just to get to the bottom of the ravine. She craned her neck around to see the frightening path they had descended. Her heart lurched. The cliff wall sneered jagged, slimy teeth, a steep and treacherous impasse from this vantage point.

“Eyes forward, Kate!” she chided herself. This was no time to look back. Her future lay ahead in Corey’s embrace. She hoped, anyway.

The rain had done its damage and moved on. Sunlight winked through the rapidly circulating clouds casting swirling patterns on the walls of the ravine. Kate stood at the bottom of the gorge and scanned the rapid river current. She had to figure out a way to get across without tumbling over the falls.

She led the horse upstream along the pebble strewn bank until the rapids were calm and crossing looked doable. Kate and Awen both drank deeply of the fresh cold water. Kate washed the mud from her face and hands, scanning the crossing. It was very wide. The dark, slow moving water in the middle spoke of depth. Awen would have to swim there.

“We’ve got to do it, girl. We have to get out of this canyon. We’re sitting ducks down here.” She descried the ridge line behind her, then climbed onto the horse and nudged her into the stream.

Awen walked in knee deep water for the first half of the stream, then began a gradual descent into darker water. When she suddenly plunged into a drop, the icy river sluiced around her, biting into Kate’s skin. The horse drifted downstream with the current and Kate floated up from the saddle, but clamped onto the pommel with her blistered palms.

“Come on girl,” she urged through chattering teeth. “Come on, Awen, get across.”

She knew when the mare found footing because they stopped moving with the current and the saddle rose to gather Kate again. “Good, good.” She shuddered and gave a kick to spur the horse along.

They crawled out of the icy river and onto the opposite shore. Awen shook the water off her in ripples. Kate slid down the flank and stripped out of the cold, drenched garments. She rifled through her saddle packs. Everything was soaked through.

She sighed. Well, they would be dry by the time they scaled the opposite cliff. She sorted the wet clothing and slung them in loose folds along the sides of the saddle and draped her pants along the top of the saddle. She wrung out her shirt, slipped it back on, took the reins of the horse and began searching the cliff for a path. They clomped upstream along the bank, hooves crunching in the gravel and Kate’s boots squishing with each step. Awen jerked her head up and danced in place, skittering to the side. Kate held out a hand to steady her.

“What’s wrong, girl?”

Kate’s eyes darted around to see what had made her horse skittish. A shadow fell across them and Kate jerked her eyes up to the top of the cliff ledge. She caught movement, but it appeared one of the boulders had shifted behind another. It made no sense.

She covered Awen’s eyes with an extra pair of pants. “I can’t have you running off, especially now that we are such good friends.” Together, they continued the slow climb up the scarp.

A grunt on the path in front of her drew her up short. Four Kiarnusk blocked the path in front of her, their rhinoceros-like bodies upright and poised for attack. Jabbers—Kate remembered the tools of torture well—leveled at her, blue sparks fizzed along the tips. The enormous heads with pincers on either side swayed back and forth as they fastened their rapt gazes on Kate.

“SO, WHAT IS
our next move?” Stealthlin asked after Corey and Donnie had updated them.

“Should we start over at the first site and continue investigating each one?” Candol asked from the sink. She and Mel finished up the dinner dishes and eased back over to the table with raspberry cheesecake and a coffee pot.

Mel set the dessert in front of Corey and began slicing.

Corey stared at it with a sad expression.