Soldier Sworn (The Teralin Sword Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  In order to reach the south, he would need help. And he’d come to the Antrilii hoping to reach his cousin. Now that he was here, he needed to trust that connection, trust that the man who had helped defeat the Deshmahne would be able to aid him. If Gron was right and the breeding grounds were to the south, there would be more groeliin than Endric could face on his own. He would need their help.

  “I can show you, but only a few.”

  Nahrsin frowned and nodded.

  They moved quickly, passing along the rock with a surer-footed pace now that Endric wore better-fitting boots. The Antrilii had outfitted him in spare gear, remnants of a lost warrior, and Endric was thankful for them, even if the boots didn’t fit his feet as well as he would like. They were better than the laca fur boots that he’d been wearing.

  The cub came with him. Endric wasn’t sure what to do with him otherwise, not wanting to leave him with the rest of the Antrilii tribe. There had been no sign of the other merahl, and Endric wasn’t certain where they had gone and whether they would return.

  Why had they gone with him as long as they had, only to leave him again? And why would they leave the cub with him if they weren’t trusting of the Antrilii?

  “You came through here?” Nahrsin asked as they made their way along the rock. It was lighter now than when he’d come through before, and there was something very different about having others with him—at least others who would actually answer him. The merahl had provided some company, but they couldn’t speak—not in his tongue.

  Endric turned back to Nahrsin. They paused at one of the many streams that flowed through here, and they each drank, the Antrilii refilling their flasks. They hadn’t provided one of those to Endric, though he was thankful that they hadn’t taken away the sword. There had been questions when he had appeared, and they were the kind that he wasn’t certain that he had good answers for. The other Antrilii had wanted to know about his penance, and Gron had deflected most of them, but he allowed some to remain. Since most of the Antrilii knew that he had been sent out on a penance—there was no good way to hide that fact, especially dressed as he was—Endric suspected he deserved that.

  “We came through here before.”

  “We?” Nahrsin eyed the cub that had plopped itself down by his feet.

  “There was a merahl traveling with me.”

  “That would be unusual.” The way he said it made it almost like he meant it as an accusation, but Nahrsin seemed careful not to make it sound that way.

  “When you see the groeliin, you will understand.”

  They didn’t rest long, continuing on and making good time. The Antrilii let Endric lead, and the cub followed him, keeping pace easily. The larger merahl had bounded from rock to rock, jumping through the mountains with little difficulty. The cub didn’t have the same easy gait, but he was agile enough that he managed to keep up with them.

  It was late in the day when they reached the place where he’d faced the groeliin.

  The bodies were as he had last seen them, though, in the fading light of the day, they appeared even more grotesque than they had at night. At least at night, they had the darkness to shroud them, and he had been able to imagine that they were something else.

  Nahrsin stopped at the edge of the clearing, staring at the groeliin.

  “You did this?”

  Endric shook his head. “I don’t know how much of this was me, and how much of this was the merahl. They fought with me.”

  “Nahrsin, you should look at this,” one of the Antrilii said. He was an older man named Barden, one who had immediately volunteered when Nahrsin decided to return here with Endric and see the groeliin he’d attacked. Barden had a solid build, and he had deep-set eyes in a face narrower than most of the Antrilii. He wore stripes of red paint on his face, leaving patches clear, different than many of the Antrilii, who preferred to paint their entire faces.

  Nahrsin joined Barden kneeling on the ground near the groeliin. The other man who’d come with them, Asgod, stood staring at the fallen bodies. “This is an impressive number of the cursed beasts.”

  “Cursed?” Endric glanced over to him. He would never have considered the groeliin cursed, but there was a simple sort of logic to it.

  “They remain in the mountains, twisted and evil. I think they must be cursed for them to spend their days like that. What other creature spends its days in such a manner?”

  “The Antrilii?” Endric asked.

  Asgod smiled. “Perhaps you are right, Endric son of Dendril, though many would claim the Antrilii are blessed. We have been given the gift of the gods so that we can see the creatures we face. Many men—most men—are not able to make the same claim.”

  “Endric,” Nahrsin said, looking up from where he was crouched next to the groeliin on the farthest edge of the clearing.

  Endric left Asgod and stood near Nahrsin. Barden was busy rolling one of the groeliin, staring at the creature as he did.

  “What is it?”

  “I can see the creatures you were involved with. You must have used the spear for most?” he asked.

  Endric nodded. “It was spear and club.”

  “How many groeliin do you think you killed?”

  Endric shrugged. “I don’t know. There were thirteen before I ever encountered this collection. When I came here, it was because the cub’s crying drew me. I think the merahl would have rescued it otherwise.”

  “Maybe. I do not know whether that is true or not. You said that you drew the groeliin’s attention away?”

  “I did what I had to do to get to the cub,” Endric said.

  The cub had returned to the site where he’d been tied up, and sat growling at the ground, flaring his teeth in a way that would be cute and amusing if not for the fact that Endric knew he would grow to be a dangerous hunter.

  Nahrsin laughed. “I think I understand why it has chosen you.”

  “Why is that important to understand?” Gron had been the same way, seeking to understand why the cub had claimed him. Endric wasn’t certain why it had, only that the cub had remained with him—and the merahl he thought were the cub's parents had allowed it.

  “The merahl are known to bond with men,” Nahrsin said.

  “I remember.”

  “You remember what you saw of Dentoun and the way that the merahl reacted. They chose to hunt with us, but only one of the merahl had chosen a person to bond. They are proud creatures, and they can be difficult to know their minds at times, but when you do, you will see that they are incredibly intelligent and can be brutally efficient hunters.”

  “I remember,” Endric said.

  “Dentoun was the only one among us who had been chosen by the merahl. That was how we could draw them with us as far south as we did. They have a way of speaking to each other, a way that lets them share what we plan. Without that, we wouldn’t have had the same hunters with us.”

  “How many of the Antrilii have merahl that have chosen them?”

  “Not many,” Nahrsin said. “Usually when we hunt groeliin, there are merahl who have agreed to hunt with us, but that is a choice that they make, not one that is made for them. “

  Endric looked down at the cub. He didn’t know if he’d been chosen or not, though the Antrilii seemed to believe that he had been. What he did know was that he hadn’t been able to leave the merahl to the groeliin.

  “There are at least thirty groeliin here,” Nahrsin said. This time, his voice was edged with respect.

  “I don’t get credit for most of them,” Endric said. “The merahl took most of them out for me.”

  “I think you don’t give yourself enough credit,” Nahrsin said. He began to make his way through the fallen groeliin, and Barden came behind, pushing the groeliin into a pile in the center of the clearing. Asgod began helping. They dragged the bodies of the fallen creatures, seemingly unmindful of the stench they still emitted. It was a foul odor, one that would be worse if not for the fact that Endric had dealt with it for the la
st few days, carrying with him the hunks of branded groeliin flesh.

  Nahrsin pointed to groeliin clustered around the rock where the cub still crouched. Endric noted about a dozen groeliin there.

  “These were not merahl kills,” Nahrsin said. “These were something else. A man with a staff—or a spear.” A look of respect crossed Nahrsin’s face that hadn’t been there before. “You should be proud of the fact that you were able to kill so many.”

  “Still not enough,” Endric said.

  “Perhaps not for the Yahinv, but I think you have killed enough for the merahl. Perhaps that is how you earned the respect of creatures that would normally not choose someone, and certainly would not do so with an outsider.”

  “Nahrsin,” Endric began, making his way to the rock, “there was an Antrilii here. The groeliin had flayed him and had woven his flesh together to trap the merahl.”

  “That would be a foul thing.”

  “Are the groeliin considered intelligent?” Endric asked.

  Nahrsin shrugged. “We haven’t thought so, but we aren’t entirely certain. We know that they have been found to plan attacks, and they coordinate less like wild beasts and more like creatures with real minds, like those with some intelligence, so it is possible that they are.”

  “This was planned like a trap. The groeliin wanted to bring the merahl here, and they wanted to capture them.”

  “The groeliin do not care for the merahl. They are even more efficient hunters than the Antrilii. But they would not have known how to trap them. This can’t be what you say.”

  Endric looked at the stone. Beneath it would be the Antrilii that had been used. Why would the groeliin have captured an Antrilii—and where would he have come from?

  He didn’t know, but maybe Nahrsin would. He pushed on the stone, and it rolled away. Where the body had been, there was nothing.

  Where had it gone?

  The groeliin had been here, had remained where they had been when he’d killed them, but the Antrilii should have been with it.

  “Endric?”

  He looked up.

  “You seem troubled.”

  “There was an Antrilii here. I don’t know what happened to him.”

  Nahrsin looked around the clearing, but there was no sign of the fallen Antrilii.

  “Are you certain?”

  Endric nodded. “That was the man who had been flayed. I’m quite certain. Where would he have gone?”

  Nahrsin turned his attention south, saying nothing. Endric felt a chill wash over him. He didn’t know if that was the silence, or whether it came from something else.

  20

  After they had burned the bodies of the groeliin, the smoke a cloying cloud of darkness that Endric had made a point of standing upwind from, not wanting to be too close to the horrible burning stink the creatures emitted, they had started back toward the other Antrilii camp. None of them spoke, though Endric wasn’t certain whether that was because there was something that had troubled the rest of the Antrilii, or whether it was because they didn’t want to make much sound as they traveled.

  It was late when they stopped to camp for the night.

  Endric was happy that they hadn’t camped near the dead bodies of the groeliin. Doing so would have left him unsettled. It wasn’t the dead that bothered him; it was more about the fact that they were groeliin, and he wasn’t entirely certain that they wouldn’t find them again. Now that he and the cub had the Antrilii with him, he had the hope that he would be safer, especially since they had so much more experience hunting the groeliin, but Endric had managed for nearly two weeks alone. Wasn’t his experience worth something as well?

  The other two Antrilii collected firewood and quickly had a small flame burning, pushing back the darkness as well as the cool of the night. Barden handed out strips of jerky, giving one to each of them, including Endric. He chewed it slowly, savoring the heavily spiced meat, thankful that it was jerky rather than any of the strange things that he had been forced to eat during his time in the mountains.

  “Why did you come north?” Nahrsin asked, ending the comfortable silence. They sat apart from the other two, and Endric wondered if that had been intentional. Had Nahrsin hoped to find something about Endric that troubled the other Antrilii?

  “Understanding,” Endric said.

  “What kind of understanding?”

  “When I met you, I had been exiled from Vasha. My father sent me out, thinking that I would learn something from your father. I don’t think he expected me to find what I did, but it is fortunate that I did.” He had never given much thought to the fact that it had been fortunate that he left Vasha when he had. Had he not, he might not have been able to learn what the Deshmahne had planned or understand the attack they intended on the city.

  “The Antrilii understand the gods have a plan for all of us, Endric. It was in this way that they had a plan for even you, even if you do not believe it.”

  “I don’t know what that plan might be. All I know is that I want to know what the Antrilii know. You are more skilled swordsmen than any other I’ve seen, excluding Brohmin.”

  “The Hunter,” Nahrsin said.

  Endric nodded. “He was with me. When we came north, we were attacked by groeliin in the mountains as we attempted to come through the pass. I was injured. Nessa nursed me back to health; otherwise, I would have died. I don’t know what happened to Brohmin. They claim they didn’t find him with me.”

  “It would be devastating if the Hunter is lost. He was impressive when I last saw him.”

  “I don’t know how he could have survived. There would have been too many groeliin. And had he survived, he should have been found with me.”

  “You said this attack was in the pass as you made your way north?”

  Endric nodded.

  “And you awoke in Farsea if you were healed by Nessa.”

  Endric nodded again.

  “That pass should have been protected. There should have been no reason for you to have been attacked. Nessa’s tribe was responsible for patrolling there.”

  “I had the sense that they didn’t know where the rest of her tribe was,” Endric answered. “They had gone, and from what I had overheard, they weren’t exactly sure where to find them.”

  “That is… troubling. At least as troubling as the fact that you were sent south the way you were and given a penance worse than any that would have been given to one of the Antrilii. They should have come this way to join in the attack.”

  Endric stared at the flames. There had been so few nights where he had been able to have a fire that having one now felt like a luxury. “I didn’t know that the Antrilii had cities,” he said.

  “There are probably many things about the Antrilii that you do not know. You weren’t raised among the people, not as your father had been.”

  “My father doesn’t speak of his time then. He doesn’t speak of much beyond the present. He plans, and he worries about the safety of the Denraen—and the Magi—but he doesn’t tell me about anything from his time before he came to Vasha. I know so little, not even about my mother.”

  “You thought that coming to the Antrilii would teach you about your mother?”

  Endric shrugged. “I mostly wanted to know what the Antrilii know. I wanted to learn whether there was anything I could gain from studying with you. I would like to be able to fight like the Antrilii.”

  “It’s not all about fighting,” Nahrsin said. “The Antrilii serve a higher purpose.”

  “Your vow to the gods.”

  “Our vow to continue to fight and protect the north. That is why we serve. That is why the others do not care for Dendril leaving. They think he has abandoned his vows, though they do not know how he has gained vows they will never understand.”

  “Why does it bother them so much?”

  “Because your father was to lead the Scroll tribe.”

  “Not Dentoun?”

  “My father came to it after Dendril left. Dent
oun was always capable, and he was always strong and devoted, but Dendril… there have been stories about Dendril. He was revered by the hunters of our tribe. When he came to his mother and announced that he needed to leave, she didn’t understand at first.”

  “Melinda seemed to support his choice,” Endric said.

  “Perhaps now, but there was a time when she didn’t. She fought against it, and she was one of the most vocal about why Dendril needed to return, demanding that he serve a penance.” He shook his head. “It’s possible that the penance the Yahinv assigned to you was the same one that Melinda would have chosen for Dendril. I can’t imagine that it had changed over the years, though her opinion about what Dendril did, and why he left has changed.”

  Endric wondered if Nahrsin understood anything about the Conclave. From Melinda’s comments, he thought that she had, but maybe she didn’t. They knew of Brohmin, but did they know anything else? Did they know that Tresten served in the Conclave? Did they know of his father’s role? What of the historian? Dentoun had seemed to know the historian and Nahrsin had a certain familiarity with him as well.

  He decided that it wasn’t his place to share anything about the Conclave. If they didn’t know about it, then he shouldn’t be the one to reveal it, partly because he wasn’t entirely certain what it meant or what the Conclave did.

  “Melinda didn’t want me to serve the penance,” Endric said.

  “Melinda would have wanted Dendril to return, and to serve it himself,” Nahrsin said.

  Endric sat back, staring at the fire. He was surprised to learn that Melinda had been unhappy with Dendril, almost as if when he had been with her, when she had been in the Yahinv, he had the sense that she sided with Dendril, but she seemed to understand some greater truth about the reason that he served.

  Had he misread it? He didn't like the idea that he could have so easily misunderstood the situation. Then again, he had clearly misread the fact that the Antrilii weren't thrilled with his father's departure. He had assumed that they had allowed him to leave, that they had wanted him to go, but then again, he should've expected the fact that his father had not served as the rest of the Antrilii intended. Dentoun would've helped and would have been willing to help simply because he was Dendril's brother.