Sabina and I passed around a rocky outcrop, then stopped in surprise, staring upward at a giant plume of mist that rose fifty feet into the air. White, seething water poured out from a jagged crevice in the eastern cliff face, then fell at least four hundred yards into a deep basin of bubbling, steaming water. The cold water from the mountain was draining into the hot water pooling below, I realized, evaporating instantly into mist, which caused the strange hissing sound that I had been hearing.
We had reached The Purge.
Sabina started to move forward, her face struck with wonder just as I put my hand on her arm, holding her back. A man knelt on the rocky ledge overlooking the water with his forehead pressed to the stone. I ushered Sabina behind some bushes, motioning for her to stay silent as I studied the stranger. He was dressed entirely in animal skins and had a knife on his hip. His hair was brown, shorn on both sides and left long at the back and braided with string and colorful beads. He knelt barefoot, but I could see a hardy pair of fur-lined boots sitting nearby on the rocks. We had found one of the Tapeau.
I leaned toward Sabina. “We’ll wait until he leaves, then follow him. Hopefully, he will lead us to the tunnel.”
Sabina and I sat huddled in the bushes for many long minutes, and during that entire time, the Tapeau didn’t move or utter a sound. Eventually, I couldn’t take the burning in my thighs any longer and I shifted my legs carefully, wishing the Tapeau would just do something. Then I caught movement to my left. A man was approaching cautiously from the south, pushing his way through the undergrowth, but I could only see his boots and legs from my vantage point. The intruder might just be another Pilgrim come to worship, I reasoned, but something told me that he wasn’t. I could see a second figure moving behind the first now, and finally, I got a good look at the leader’s face. I had to force myself not to curse out loud. It was Emand, with his dour-looking wife coming stoically on behind him.
The cordwainer had a drawn sword in his hand as he focused warily on the motionless Tapeau. I knew the kneeling man couldn’t hear anyone approaching with the sounds coming from the falls. I carefully drew Malo’s sword as I debated what to do. Should I jump out now and deal with Emand once and for all, or wait to see what the shoemaker planned? There was always the chance that Emand might have more men with him, which made me hesitate as I weighed my options. Sabina and I were well hidden where we were, so the chances of discovery were slim. But leaving the Tapeau exposed the way that he was just didn’t sit right with me. I had to do something to warn him.
I glanced down, searching the valley floor until I saw a small rock, then threw it high over the bushes in the direction of the Tapeau. I had hoped the rock would land on the overhang the Tapeau was kneeling on and alert him to danger, but my throw was more accurate than I had intended. Instead of the ledge, the stone cracked smartly against the bottom of the Tapeau’s bare right foot. The man reacted instantly, spinning sideways and snatching out his knife as he faced the surprised cordwainer. Emand clearly hadn’t seen the small rock that I’d thrown as he lifted a hand to the Tapeau, looking as though he was trying to reassure him. I couldn’t hear anything that was being said over the roar of the falls other than a few garbled words.
The Tapeau was lithe and muscular-looking, and now that he was aware of Emand, I felt better about the man’s chances. I relaxed slightly, watching the trees for any sign of others. The Tapeau suddenly shook his head angrily and said something to Emand in sharp bursts. He motioned with his knife for emphasis, pointing back the way the two had come. Emand smiled disarmingly, letting his sword drop to his side, while Laurea moved out along the rocks, staring into the water. She stopped less than ten feet from the Tapeau and closed her eyes, breathing deeply with her hands clasped to her chest in reverence.
The Tapeau remained focused on Emand as the shoemaker took several steps closer. Again, the custodian shook his head as he gestured with his knife. Emand just laughed and shrugged. He said something as he pointed to his wife, who suddenly pounced, lashing out with her right hand as she raked it down the Tapeau’s face. The attack was unexpected, yet Laurea was a slight woman and unarmed, so it seemed harmless enough to me. The Tapeau screamed in agony, however, and he fell back, spewing blood from his face. I was shocked to see skin hanging torn and bloody from his cheek. I felt a shimmer of superstitious awe roll along my back just as Laurea struck again, raking her fingers across the Tapeau’s chest. The man screamed a second time, and he fell backward as Laurea leaped with blazing speed onto his chest. She raised her right hand in the air, then paused and looked behind her at Emand. The cordwainer was smiling as he strode forward. He casually kicked the Tapeau’s knife into the bubbling water.
“What just happened?” Sabina whispered beside me. “How did she do that?”
I studied Laurea’s raised right hand carefully. I saw what appeared to be a thin band of iron crossing her knuckles, with the points of four wicked claws dripping blood jutting out from her palm. I’d never seen anything like it before. Emand knelt beside the Tapeau as the man stared at him with dark blood welling from the gashes on his face. Emand said something, his body language suggesting amusement as he motioned around the valley with his sword. The Tapeau shook his head and Laurea put her clawed hand against his neck. Emand spoke again, and this time the Tapeau responded as he gestured northward. I assumed he was telling Emand where the tunnel was located. The cordwainer patted the Tapeau on the shoulder, and then he thrust his sword deep into the man’s neck with a quick, efficient move. Sabina gasped in shock beside me as Emand casually wiped his blade clean on the Tapeau’s clothing.
The shoemaker stood and glanced around, his face hard and cold-looking. Then he spoke to Laurea, gesturing for her to join him. The thin woman laughed, her face twisted ugly as she stood and slashed down with each hand, slicing deep into the dead man’s neck. Laurea kicked savagely at the bloody head several times before finally dislodging it, and then she flicked the decapitated head into the water with her boot. Emand had waited patiently for her to finish, and now he pointed north as the two moved away, quickly disappearing through the undergrowth.
“What do we do?” Sabina whispered.
I was confident now that the two were alone as I stood up and helped Sabina to her feet. I had told Rorian that I didn’t make war on women, but after what I had just seen, I was ready to revise my stance on that. At least for this woman, anyway.
“We follow them, and when the time is right, I’ll kill them both,” I growled.
18: Emand
Jebido told me many times over the years that I should never underestimate my opponents. I realized that I had done just that with Emand. Because the man was so much older than me, small in stature, and seemed relatively harmless, I dismissed him as being any kind of serious threat. That had been a mistake. One that I made with his wife as well. Arrogance can be useful occasionally, but it can also be a trait that can get you killed, and I vowed not to underestimate either one of them again. I still wasn’t positive who the pair were working for, but with the connection the couple had to Cardia, it seemed logical to believe that it was the Cardians. Emand had played a waiting game with me, hoping to win my friendship and trust and learn the codex's location in that way. He was sly and patient, I now knew, and his plan might have worked, had I really been the man he’d thought me to be.
Thinking of that made me wonder how Emand had come to know my true identity in the first place. Then I shrugged the question off as pointless. I would be asking the bastard soon enough with the point of my sword at his throat. What was really puzzling, however, was that if Emand did work for Cardia like I believed, and the Cardians had hired Rorian to locate the codex, then why was Emand here at all?
I watched Sabina as she knelt under the protection of a tree, studying the spoor left behind by our quarry. I was sweating in my heavy cloak and considered just taking it off, but quickly discarded the idea. I would need my hands free if Emand and his vicious wife doubled back on us. Besid
es, once we found the Tapeau tunnel, I knew we would be right back out in the harsh weather and I’d be very thankful for the warmth the cloak provided.
“They headed that way,” Sabina said, pointing east to a half-moon shaped, bubbling spring surrounded in places by dense growths of prickly bushes.
I had a sudden vision of Patter’s Bog and the bushes that I had hid behind as a child. I studied the spring warily. Were the shoemaker and his wife hiding in there right now, waiting for us to walk into their trap? Sabina knit her eyebrows together as she peered at the ground.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Sabina muttered as she stood. She gestured ahead. “They were heading straight north, then suddenly veered off to the east toward that spring.”
“They must have seen us,” I said, confident that I was right. I knew the Tapeau had told Emand to go north, so changing course so suddenly could only mean one thing. They knew we were here.
Tall cypress trees grew in abundance on the far side of the spring, with the valley floor below them covered in the distinctive, feather-like leaves of the maidenhair, which was a type of fern that thrived in warm, moist temperatures. The imposing, rocky wall of the valley rose beyond the trees, hard and unyielding. I peered once again at the bushes, wondering if even now, Emand’s eyes were on us as I flexed my hand on the leather grip of Malo’s sword. Birds continued to sing and flit through the trees over our heads despite the steady rainfall. I could hear the deep, distinctive croak of a bullfrog lamenting somewhere behind us along with the drone of crickets and the occasional bee buzzing past. A woodpecker hammered away at a trunk far to the north as I stood in indecision.
“Stay here,” I finally said to Sabina. “Find somewhere to hide and wait there until I call for you.”
“I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Sabina said uneasily.
“Just do what you are told,” I replied gruffly. I was in no mood to argue with Sabina right now. “If they are waiting for us on the other side of those bushes, I don’t want to have to worry about you getting in my way.”
Sabina looked as though she might protest again and I glared at her in warning, then I turned and stalked toward the spring. I hadn’t known the Tapeau, but his death was gnawing at me like a rat on a corpse. He could have been a good man, a bad man, or somewhere in between, I had no way of knowing. But I did know that he hadn’t deserved what had happened to him. What bothered me the most, I suppose, was that I knew I was ultimately responsible for his death. I’d led Emand and that bitch of a wife of his right to him. I couldn’t bring the man back to life, but I could exact revenge for what they had done. And that was precisely what I planned on doing.
I was angry, but it wasn’t a hot, reckless anger like in years past, but more like a cold, focused rage. I had initially trusted Emand, maybe even liked him a little, and I knew a great deal of my anger had to do with how wrong I had been about him. I took several steps, then paused to listen before moving forward, trying to avoid walking on any twigs or branches that might signal my approach. I could see through a wide gap in the bushes that the spring ahead was bubbling and seething, just like the larger one beneath The Purge. I had no idea why some of the springs were warm and some scalding hot like this one appeared to be. Perhaps the heat came from all the burning souls in the world of Father Below, I thought. It seemed as likely an answer as any other.
I had learned enough from Sabina over the last few weeks to follow Emand’s trail quite easily as it led me toward the spring. The sounds coming from the bubbling water were louder now and would hide my approach, which was good, but it also hid any noise my adversaries might make as well. The gap in the thicket ahead was the width of a man, with the bushes to either side at least ten feet deep, with barbed thorns on them that gleamed from the rain. I knew there was little to no chance that anyone could be waiting to pounce at me from within them, which meant if I were to be attacked, it would happen on the other side.
I hesitated halfway, listening again as I carefully opened my cloak and drew the two sacks of provisions over my neck. I untied them, then twirled one several times before flinging it over the hedges six feet to my right, where it landed with a dull thud. I heard an exclamation of surprise and I jumped forward instantly, lifting the second bag as a shield. A shriek sounded at my appearance, then Laurea was on me, slashing wildly with her claws. The sack I held jumped twice on my arm as the food fell to the ground, but her claws hadn’t reached me. I threw the bag in Laurea’s face and whirled sideways, narrowly avoiding being skewered by Emand. I slapped his sword aside and took an off-balance swipe at the cordwainer, but the little man danced away nimbly. I retreated with my back to the bank of the spring.
Emand and his wife hesitated, one to either side of me. Laurea was growling deep in her slight chest as she clicked her claws together. I realized I had never actually heard the woman speak. She and Rorian’s tongue-less wife would have gotten along famously if not for me, I thought, feeling my mouth twitch in amusement at the idea.
“You find the current situation funny, do you, Hadrack?” Emand asked.
“I was just thinking how much I’m going to enjoy killing you and this she-bitch, here.”
Emand’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll not have you disparage my wife, Hadrack. It’s unseemly.”
I chuckled. “Unseemly, is it?” I shifted my stance, feeling the intense heat from the spring even through my cloak. “What is unseemly, you lying little bastard, is what this slut of yours did to that man back there.”
Emand’s faced darkened and his eyes glinted with anger. Good, I thought. I wanted him angry. An angry man can often make foolish mistakes, as I have learned all too well.
“Laurea can sometimes lose herself in the moment,” Emand said as he smoothed his features, looking calmer now. “I’m sure you can understand how that might happen.”
“All I understand is you murdered someone for no good reason,” I spat back.
“Ah,” Emand said with a rueful smile. “I agree, that was unfortunate. I made the assumption—a wrong one as it turned out—that you had already left Oasis using the tunnel. I didn’t want to waste time trying to find out its location by…er…more gentler means.” He shifted his gaze to his wife and smiled at her affectionately. “Besides, Laurea hadn’t killed anyone in quite some time. She was starting to get anxious.”
I glanced at Laurea, who was staring at me with a feral hunger in her eyes. “So, what’s your plan now, Emand?” I asked. “If you kill me, you won’t learn where the codex is.”
“Not true,” Emand said. He inched to his right, flanking me, while Laurea shifted left. “I’m sure Sabina will be most helpful with that, once we deal with you.”
I snorted. “You are a fool, Emand. The girl is just some stupid whore I hired in Calban to get me into The Walk. She doesn’t know anything.”
Emand paused, regarding me thoughtfully. He glanced at his wife. “What do you think, my love?” Laurea shook her head slowly, never taking her eyes off of me. “Well, there you have it,” Emand said. “Neither of us believe you.”
I shrugged. “Then that leaves only one thing left, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Emand agreed. His face changed, turning cold and dangerous. “I do believe the time for talking has come to a close.”
The shoemaker took several more steps to his right, casually flicking the full sack of food I had thrown to distract him into the spring. Then he glided toward the bank, while Laurea did the same on her side. I couldn’t watch them both now, as I was forced to turn my head back and forth. By their practiced rhythm, I could tell that the cordwainer and his wife had been successful at this same maneuver before. I was determined to end that success right here and now. But of the two, who would be the one to strike first? My instinct was to watch for Emand to make the first move, but Laurea was quick like a cat and couldn’t be discounted. Perhaps they would attack together on some mutual signal that they both knew?
My b
est chance, I decided, was to disrupt their rhythm and put them on the defensive. I checked on Laurea, then glanced down at Emand’s feet. He was on his heels with one foot in front of the other, his sword ready. Judging by the way he held his body, I decided he wasn’t the one who was going to attack first. It was Laurea. I bellowed and ran at the cordwainer, hoping he would step back and raise his sword in a defensive posture—which he did. I smashed Malo’s short sword onto Emand’s longer blade, staggering the little man, even as I heard movement from behind me.
I turned. Laurea was coming fast, howling like some crazed animal as I leaped sideways out of the way. I landed hard on the rock, feeling a burning sensation ripping down my thigh where the woman’s claws had cut through my cloak and raked my skin. She was on me before I had a chance to rise, spitting and screaming as she pounced. I did the only thing that I could and I rolled left, evading her claws that cracked against the stone beneath me. Then I kicked out, catching the bitch hard in the knee, sending her tumbling away. Emand appeared over me with his sword raised and I rolled away from him, this time to my right. The cordwainer swung, cursing at me as his blade grazed my hair, taking a chunk off the top as it swished past. I swiped wildly at him, still off-balance, but coming close enough that the little man had to leap back. I’d gained a small amount of time, sufficient enough to allow me to get back to my feet as Emand advanced on me warily. Laurea was on her feet again as well, her face twisted with hatred as she came forward.
“You don’t disappoint, Hadrack of Corwick,” Emand said, his voice soft and deadly. “I am impressed.”
“And shortly, you will be dead,” I replied.
I took a glance over my shoulder. The spring was shaped in a half-moon, with the rounded back of it behind me. The fattest part of the spring was less than four feet from the bushes, and I retreated to that spot. If Emand and Laurea wanted to get to me, they would have to do it together in that narrow space, or even better, one at a time.
The Wolf On The Run (The Wolf of Corwick Castle Book 3) Page 28
