Hunted

by Paul Eslinger

  “Can we take a short break?” Ara asked.

  “Of course,” I replied, lowering my pack to the ground. “We don’t have anyone on our tail right now.”

  “Are you sure?” Trey demanded.

  At the same time, Ara questioned me, “How can you tell?”

  Trey glanced up the hill as he continued. “Where did the men go who ran away?”

  Ara nodded at Trey before adding another comment, “Sneaking along watching us might be easier than attacking.”

  The back of my neck prickled with irritation as they talked. They were right, again, and I had been careless rather than protective. “Okay, okay,” I grumbled and swallowed juice from the piece of meat I was still chewing. “Someone might be trying to follow us. That means we shouldn’t stand out in the open. Grab your packs and let’s keep moving.”

  No one spoke as we crossed the small open space and once more moved among towering trees. Trey moved up in front, Ara took the middle, and I walked in the rear, trying to keep my eyes and ears open. Consequently, I tripped over a root while scanning magically for anyone close by and fell awkwardly.

  “Are you okay?” Ara asked as she spun around in response to the racket of the tumble.

  “I’m fine,” I grumped after rolling over and sitting up. I blew dirt off of my stinging kneecap, already seeing blood oozing from the scrapes.

  “Do you need some help?” she asked sweetly and extended her hand to help me rise.

  The sight of Trey’s grinning face over Ara’s shoulder didn’t help my sense of frustration. “No. I was trying to make a magical scan for other travelers and wasn’t watching where I was going. Give me a minute to finish the scan.”

  Ara stood, tapping one finger on her lips until I shifted again. “Did you find anyone?” she asked.

  I pointed in the direction we were going. “There’s a small village about a four-hour walk in that direction. There’s one person down by the river, possibly in a boat.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “There are eight people over by where we were ambushed.”

  “How about the men who ran away?” Trey asked.

  “I didn’t see them,” I admitted. They had been the reason I had started the scan, and I couldn’t see them. I sincerely hoped they couldn’t see us, but I wasn’t sure. The unease in my stomach grew stronger. Were the three witches able to hide their puppets?

  Ara crossed her arms and studied me with her mouth set in a crooked line. She used a trickle of magic when she spoke again, “You use magical guards while we are sleeping.”

  “Yes,” I replied in the same way, while Trey nodded in agreement.

  “You can use an eagle,” she continued.

  “That’s right,” I countered, unsure what point she was trying to make.

  “Would the eagle have seen the men who ambushed us if they were trying to sneak up on us rather than waiting for us to walk into their trap?”

  I slowly got to my feet without putting my sore knee down on the ground. I would heal it before long, but it was a good reminder that things wouldn’t always go the way I wanted. “I don’t know. I’ll try to add that ability when I set out the guards tonight.”

  Switching back to normal speech, Ara said, “That’s fine for night time. But what about now?”

  I frowned, thinking about how I had first conceived the idea of using the magical guards. “I only put out the guards at night.”

  Trey had been watching Ara and his face suddenly brightened. “Ah, I see. What happens if you put out the eagles, and maybe the pumas, right now?”

  Ara gave Trey an approving glance. “That’s what I was thinking. Normal people, those who can’t use magic, won’t even see them. I bet Reuben can make them invisible to other magicians as well.”

  I felt totally inept, but also knew I had already posted the guards multiple times. One hand unconsciously rose shoulder height as I closed my eyes and thought about posting an eagle to watch from the sky. I didn’t need to open my eyes to see the magical form of a large eagle perched on the edge of my hand. I gave a tossing motion and the eagle launched into the sky.

  A strange sound struck my ears and interrupted my attempt to conjure the enchanted pumas. I crouched and spun, my heart beating rapidly, only to see Ara’s beaming face as she clapped her hands together.

  Her smile grew wider. “That is an impressive eagle. Did I startle you?”

  I patted my chest and tried to slow my breathing back to normal levels. “Argh. I was trying to concentrate and you interrupted me.”

  “Sorry,” she said, but her smile indicated her attitude didn’t match her words.

  I closed my eyes again and ignored her as I reached for more power to post an enchanted puma. My opal supplied vastly more power than required, but something felt different when I magically touched the sapphire. A moment later, the difference was obvious. The sapphire wasn’t storing magical power, even though I had pulled a lot of power from it during the fight with the three assassins. The amount of available power was still far larger than I could grasp, but I automatically tried to store more. To my relief, it once again began drinking power.

  Once again able to focus, I conjured an enchanted puma and told it to sit beside me. After a moment, I reached for more power and soon a second puma was sitting beside the first. Not knowing how I did it, I instructed one to scout ahead and the other to watch behind. I let out a long breath when they rose to all fours and bounded away. My magical voice showed my sense of satisfaction to both Ara and Trey. “They should help keep us safe.”

  Ara watched one of the pumas until it went out of sight. She looked at me and said, “They’re wonderful.”

  Her expression was different than anything I had ever seen her use with me. It was like I was a real person, an adult, rather than a bumbling brother. I tucked the thought away to consider later and motioned along the trail. “Let’s get moving.”

  We walked steadily but didn’t push the pace hard. Even though there wasn’t a road, we soon found a new game trail leading along the river every time the one we were following petered out. Along the way, we saw elk and deer, rabbits, foxes, and even several trees that bears had clawed. Sorcha passed by high overhead one time, but my magical guards didn’t send any warnings.

  I was thinking about finding a place to camp for the night when Ara clutched my arm as we were crossing a small open space. She pointed across the river. “There are fields over there and I see a couple of houses.”

  “And a road,” Trey added. “The road extends as far on that side of the river as the distance from Glendale to Falkirk.”

  “Do you have a map?” Ara asked.

  Trey shook his head. “No, but I heard travelers talking in Glendale when we visited. I think we have a week of walking to get to the Pig’s Ear.”

  “Ah,” Ara said. “You listen very closely, don’t you?”

  “As long as I can remember,” he said and then turned away. From his closed expression, I knew he was thinking about his parents.

  We found a sheltered place to camp. By common consent, we ate cheese, bread, and dried fruit from our packs rather than making a cooking fire. I toyed with the idea of heating meat to eat like I heated the oat groats, but past experience told me I would burn some of the meat before I figured out the right magical touch. The idea of burnt meat brought back mental images of my mother cooking over a fire. I pushed aside the raw thoughts and reached for my sleeping fur.

  The same thoughts returned every time I started to nod off and I cast around for ways to think of something different. Finally, I focused on thinking about trying to heal Sorcha. With her permission, the next time we met I would check if her heart was still healthy. If so, maybe I could heal another small part of her body.

  I was almost asleep before another thought roused me again. Changing shape to that of a dragon made Sorcha healthy, and apparentl
y also gave her a very long lifespan. Would Father have regained his strength if he had changed to dragon form? He had aged so fast and died so young. Would shifting shape to dragon form give me renewed strength when I grew older? Even now, it would be wonderful to travel with the winds as Sorcha did.

  Moments later, or so it seemed, the light of the distant rising sun painted the high clouds pink and gold, and banished any more thoughts of sleep. I rose to my knees, glancing across where both Trey and Ara were still sleeping. One puma was sitting alertly on the other side of them. The other one was sitting on a rock ledge above the camping area.

  A stab of pain completed my change to full wakefulness. I sat on the sleeping fur and looked at the bruise and bloody scab on my knee. I had been so busy thinking and setting magical guards that I had forgotten to heal the wound. It was easier to reach the magic here than when we were in Glendale and I used it to heal my knee. After the scab fell off, I added a little boost to the rest of my body to limber any stiff or sore muscles.

  Ara stirred under her sleeping fur as I finished the healing touch and said quietly, “We should reach the boat location today.”

  “That’s my thought, too,” I answered.

  Trey shifted and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at the puma still sitting nearby. “No one bothered us during the night.”

  Mother had said true compliments help strengthen friendships, so I decided to start the morning with a compliment. “You and Ara had a good idea. Let’s eat breakfast and move on.”

  “Breakfast can wait for a few moments,” Ara said as she pushed back her sleeping fur and reached for her moccasins. She put one on and then held the other one up with her finger sticking through a hole in the sole. “I have a problem.”

  “Oh,” I said, instantly recognizing the problem. I picked up my own moccasins and looked at them. The worn soles were so thin they wouldn’t last all the way to Casselton. I looked at Trey. “How are your moccasins doing?”

  “Thin,” he replied without bothering to look at them.

  “I have enough extra heavy leather to make new soles on all three pairs,” I said, “but…”

  Ara interrupted, “But it will take all morning.”

  “Yeah,” I grunted.

  “Can’t you use magic to do it faster?” Trey asked.

  “Maybe,” I said slowly. “Don’t bother telling me this is negative thinking, but I was never very good at sewing or making things from wood. I could probably make a bad pair of moccasins really fast.”

  “You’re good at making breakfast,” Ara said sweetly. “Why don’t you get out the leather and tools and then make breakfast? I’ll work on the moccasins. We’ll get sore feet if we don’t fix them.”

  After setting out the things Ara needed and loaning her my knife, I poured oats in the bowls and filled them with clean water summoned from the nearby creek. She cut out all six new soles and removed the old soles from the uppers before the oats were ready.

  Rather than walk barefoot on the rocky soil near the creek, both Trey and I sat and watched Ara. She picked up the awl and pointed at the leather with it when she felt us watching her. “Punching holes in the right place takes a while.”

  I leaned forward with my hand out. “I can punch holes while you get the needle ready.”

  A dubious look covered her face for long moments before she nodded and held out the awl. “Go ahead. You can cut new soles if you ruin these.”

  “You don’t have any faith,” I shot back. I held the awl and looked where the holes needed to go. The crutch I had shaped while using magic was far better than anything I had whittled before. Maybe magic could help here. I reached for magic, focused on the leather, and then bored all thirty-four holes in one sole in a quick ripple of motion.

  I picked up the sole and the upper and tossed them to Ara. “Is that okay?”

  She held the two pieces together and studied them. Finally, she nodded. “Looks good. Maybe you want to sew as well.”

  “I don’t sew,” I replied. I ignored Trey when he snorted in support of my statement.

  I finished punching the holes in the other five soles by the time Ara had threaded the big needle. She aligned the holes on a sole and upper and pulled the leather lace through them. I watched her work and then said, “You’re carrying a magical sapphire.”

  “Yes, but I don’t do magic.”

  “Wrong answer,” I said with a chuckle. “You can talk using a magical voice. You’ve always been good at working with leather. Use a little of the magic to help you sew faster.”

  She frowned and shook her head. “I can’t do that.”

  “You told me to be positive,” I said with a big grin. “You won’t know if it will work until you try. The magical power is already there. You just have to let it work through you.”

  Her response was so low I barely heard it. “Okay.”

  I decided to let her work on the techniques without interrupting. She finished half of the first sole at her usual deliberate pace and then her fingers began to move more quickly. She finished the moccasin and set it aside before she reloaded the needle with flashing movements.

  She finished the second moccasin in far less time than the first one. By the time she got to the sixth sole, her hands moved quickly around it threading and tying the leather lace without a single miss with the needle or any wasted motion. She held it up with a big smile on her face.

  “Are you tired?” I asked, concerned that she had used magic from her body rather than the sapphire.

  “Not a bit,” she said and rose to her feet. She twirled around twice with her hands above her head. “I didn’t know I could do anything like that.”

  I noticed Trey’s somewhat jealous look and thought back to what he was good at. “You sew wonderfully, but you ought to watch Trey draw with a pen and ink. It’s magic in motion.”

  Chapter 32 – River Crossing

  Walking on rocks near the small creek was more pleasant than before with the repaired moccasins. We set out, following on another game trail, but this one wound in and out of groves of trees along the river. As they had yesterday, the enchanted eagle and two enchanted pumas prowled about and guarded against more assassins.

  I had slept enough to feel rested, but nightmares I could barely remember had rampaged through my mind. The nightmares didn’t surface again, but I couldn’t shake the feeling we were going in the wrong direction. However, Sorcha had definitely said we should go upriver. I spoke before thinking deeply, “Are we going in the right direction?”

  “Of course, we are,” Ara said.

  Trey just gave me a strange look.

  “It just seems like we are going the wrong way,” I said, hunching my shoulders.

  “Upriver is that way,” Trey said, pointing in the direction we were walking.

  “Right,” Ara agreed. “Sorcha said to go down the other side of the hill and then go upriver. We’re looking for a large grove of immense cedar trees.”

  “It still doesn’t seem right,” I said as a shudder rippled up and down my back.

  Ara turned and walked backward, looking at me. “Are you feeling a chill as well?”

  “What?” Her question seemed odd, and then I understood. “You think someone is trying to magically influence my thinking?”

  “Can people do that?” she asked.

  Trey broke in before I could answer. “Reuben, you know it’s possible. You told me that the woman who used to carry the sapphire could make you answer any question.”

  “You’re right,” I said, remembering the piercing eyes and mannerisms of the dead woman.

  Remembering the question Ara had just asked, I said, “I don’t feel any chill.”

  Trey moved so close his elbow brushed mine and pointed upriver. “Do you feel like we’re going the wrong way because someone is telling you it’s the wrong w
ay, or because someone is trying to pull you the other way?”

  I stopped and looked at him, “What difference does it make?”

  Ara also stopped and heaved a sigh of exasperation. “Don’t be a dunce, Reuben. If someone is trying to lure you into another trap, they can do that without knowing your specific location. If they know where you are and where you are going enough to send you in another direction, then they know a lot more than we do.”

  “Oh, yes,” I said as I felt stupid again. I needed Ara and Trey to ferret out obscure meanings and approaches, and they needed my protection and power. We had to stick together as friends to even stay alive.

  “Let’s make a test,” I said cocked my head, trying to check the source. Nothing changed, so I turned and walked slowly in the direction we had just come. A feeling that I was doing the right thing crept over me. I stopped and looked back at the others. “I think they can tell what direction I am going.”

  Ara and Trey glanced at each other and then Ara shook her head so hard her hair flew in every direction. “That doesn’t tell us the difference,” she called.

  Trey nodded, apparently in agreement and then pointed at me as I moved closer, already feeling like I was going in the wrong direction. “Walk that way, but walk backward.”

  Rather than protest, I stopped and started backing along the trail. The feeling I was doing the right thing came back. I whirled around and walked backward to where Ara and Trey were standing. This time, the feeling changed to a sense of wrongness.

  Ara placed her clenched fists on her hips and watched my face. “Well?” she demanded.

  I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Any movement in that direction feels right.” I moved my hand to indicate upriver. “Any movement in that direction feels wrong.”

  “Two things are obvious,” Ara declared. “They want to draw you back towards Falkirk, maybe even all the way to town. And—”

  Trey interrupted, “They think they are strong enough to kill you.”

  “Their killers used weak stones,” Ara added, seemingly not irritated by Trey’s interruption.