The Wolf On The Run (The Wolf of Corwick Castle Book 3)

by Terry Cloutier

“House Agents,” Sabina answered with distaste. I noticed her sleeve was torn and stained crimson with dried blood. “I don’t know how they know we are here, but they do.”

  “Let me see that,” I said, concerned despite my anger at the amount of blood.

  “It’s nothing,” Sabina responded, waving me away. “Just a scratch from some bushes that I had to hide in.” She sat down by the fire as I brought her the remainder of the water. I watched as she tore a section of material off of her sleeve and dabbed it into the bowl, then began to clean the wound methodically. She paused and glanced up at me meaningfully. “The House Agents have set up camp about a half-mile from here. There must be at least thirty of them.”

  “Which means they haven’t finished looking for us,” I said grimly. Sabina nodded her head in agreement, then went back to her task. “Did you find the Tapeau tunnel while I raved with fever?” I asked.

  Sabina snorted. “Of course I did, darling. It’s about three hundred yards to the south of us.” She looked up and smiled at me. “Just as obvious as our love.”

  I took a deep breath, deciding not to take the bait. Sabina and I needed each other right now, and I knew it would be best for both of us if I ignored any comments like the one she had just made and simply humored her. Once we were free of Oasis and the mountain, I would find a way to contact Malo and the others, then take Sabina to her village. Not to marry her, of course, but to deliver her to her brother safely and be free of her.

  I started to pace, thinking about what Sabina had told me. The House Agents making camp meant that they were determined to locate us—which, being House Agents, also meant that they would find us eventually if we remained where we were. My leg wasn’t where I’d like it to be, but it would have to do. We had to leave.

  “We go now,” I said decisively. “While most of them are asleep.”

  Sabina sighed. “I knew you were going to say that.” She studied me critically. “Do you think you can make it?”

  “There is only one way to find out,” I said as I put on my cloak.

  I stuffed Waldin’s scrolls inside my clothing as Sabina gathered her things, then I followed her as we made our way outside. The sky was heavily overcast, with no hint of the moon or stars to be seen. Perfect, I thought as Sabina pressed her lips to my ear.

  “The best way down is twenty feet to the south,” she whispered. “Stay close to me and hug the wall until I tell you to stop. The ledge gets pretty narrow in places.”

  Lowering myself down by our sack rope would be quicker, I knew, but it also had the potential to be noisy if I slipped or dislodged small stones along the way. Sound echoes loudly in a gorge at night. Sabina and I decided we would do better to take the route that she had been using these last six days. The stones there, she told me, were laid out like giant jumbled steps, flat and stable, leading all the way down to the floor of the gorge. The key would be to make sure we took our time and were as quiet as possible. I was sure that the House Agents would have watchmen around their camp, and I didn’t want them to be alerted to our movements. The descent down the mountain would be difficult enough in its own right, without having to elude House Agents the entire way as well.

  We headed out with our backs pressed tightly to the stone wall as we carefully shuffled our feet along in the darkness. I could see very little and trusted in Sabina’s familiarity with the ledge to lead while I held her arm blindly. My leg started to ache within moments, but it was a dull, steady throbbing that, while annoying, seemed manageable.

  “This should be about right,” Sabina finally whispered. She squatted and leaned forward, probing over the edge of the rock ledge. “Yes, this is the place.” She worked my boots off and handed them to me. “The first drop is about four feet down. It gets easier after that. I’ll position you in the right spot, then, when you are ready, you jump. All right?”

  “Fair enough,” I said softly, steeling myself for the pain that I knew was coming.

  I moved forward with Sabina’s guidance and sat down on the lip of the rock. I pictured the landing in my head as the light wind toyed with my hair. I needed to be quiet, land on the balls of my feet, and keep my balance all at the same time. A challenging task, considering my wound, but it had to be done. At best, I would make a muffled thud when I landed. At worst, well, I decided I didn’t want to imagine that.

  “Good luck, my love,” Sabina whispered, rubbing my arm affectionately.

  I growled low in my chest at her in irritation, then took a deep breath and pushed myself out into nothingness. I was airborne for a heartbeat, dropping through the still night before my heels slapped hard against the unseen, cold stone beneath them. I bent my knees at the impact, wobbling back and forth as pain fired along my leg. Somehow I managed to not only keep my balance, but remain silent doing so as well. I waited for a count of five, letting the pain wash over me, then I looked up, just able to discern Sabina’s shadowy form against the darker rock behind her.

  “I’m all right,” I whispered.

  “Move to your left about five feet,” Sabina called out softly.

  I did as she asked, then waited as I heard a faint rustling from above before she landed quietly on the stone nearby. The next drop was an easy two feet, then three more of varying heights, none more than three feet, before the final one to the gorge floor. We paused to rest on some rounded rocks while we donned our boots again. Other than the usual night cries of forest animals, and the ever-present drone of insects, all seemed peaceful. It appeared our descent had gone undetected.

  Five minutes later, we were on our feet again, following the gorge's wall until we came to the Tapeau tunnel. We crouched in some bushes and I studied the entrance suspiciously. It seemed hard to imagine that the tunnel had been left unguarded. Finally, I saw a brief flash of movement in the shadows to one side. I peered at that spot without blinking, examining every inch. Movement again! This time I was able to discern the shape of a man leaning his back against the rock wall behind him. He was scratching at his neck where some insect had undoubtedly bitten him. A House Agent, judging by the outline of the man’s square helmet. I turned my attention to the other side of the entrance. Sure enough, there was a second man there, hidden within the gloom of a tree.

  I pressed my lips to Sabina’s ear. “I think there are only two of them.” Sabina nodded, her hair tickling my nose as I fought the urge to sneeze. “I want you to circle to the south, then get their attention and draw them to me. I’ll handle it from there.”

  “I can help,” Sabina protested.

  I shook my head. “Not this time. It’s dark and I might hit you by accident. Now go.”

  Sabina hesitated, her eyes searching mine, then finally she pecked me on the cheek and disappeared in a faint rustle of branches. I crouched even lower, grasping Malo’s sword as I ran over in my head what I needed to do. Be quick, be strong, but above all else, I told myself, be quiet.

  Long minutes went by, and I could feel my injured leg straining from remaining crouched where I was. Then I heard something, a soft mewling noise coming from the south, sounding much like an injured animal might, though I was sure it was no animal. I could hear the two House Agents muttering to one another, and I tensed as the cry came again, this time much closer to me. The men spoke at length, then a dark form detached from the shadows under the tree and moved cautiously forward. Perfect, I thought as the man drew closer. It would be much easier and safer to deal with one of them at a time.

  The bushes moved near me and I sensed, rather than saw Sabina slithering like a snake along the valley floor until she was past me. She made the injured cry again, this time pitched lower, but sounding more urgent, with a pitiful rattling at the end that made me shake my head in admiration. If I hadn’t known it was Sabina, I would have been convinced I was listening to an animal in its death throes.

  The House Agent came on, grunting as he hacked at the underbrush with his longsword. He stopped less than five feet from me, the sounds of his breathing loud
in the sudden stillness. I could smell the stink of his unwashed body and even caught a whiff of the onions he’d eaten. Sabina had moved away from me by now, heading off to the House Agent’s right. She made the noise again, then rustled the bushes as a further incentive. Her pursuer turned his back to me, searching the darkness with his eyes as I rose and ran silently toward him. My quarry must have heard me at the last moment, for he spun on his heels, bringing up his sword just a fraction too late. I stabbed Malo’s blade deep into his kidneys and clamped my other hand over his mouth under his helmet, silencing his scream. The House Agent shuddered in my grip, then sagged as I lowered him carefully to the ground.

  “Gastel?” the second House Agent called out, sounding bored.

  I lowered my voice. “What?” I grunted.

  “What was it?”

  I headed through the bushes toward the Tapeau tunnel, marking the spot where I knew the second man stood hidden. I covered my mouth with my hand. “Just a filthy rat,” I mumbled.

  “What did you say?”

  I was ten feet away and could see the House Agent’s body against the rock behind him. I murmured something else, then pretended to stumble. The hidden man automatically stepped forward to steady me, and I grabbed him by the shoulder. “I found a rat,” I growled as I stabbed upward, slicing through the man’s windpipe, and piercing his brain. The House Agent squeaked, much like my make-believe rat, I thought, then his head lolled backward and he fell.

  After that, Sabina and I dragged the dead men well inside the Tapeau tunnel and left them there as we headed out of Oasis. I was limping badly now, as the dull ache that I had been contending with all night had turned into a continuous pounding. I did my best to ignore the pain, concentrating on staying as close to Sabina as possible in the darkness. The tunnel was narrow, long, and sloped upward at an uncomfortable angle, which did little to help the discomfort in my leg. We walked for at least another half an hour before I started to feel a cold wind sweeping down on us from ahead. I drew my cloak tighter about me and raised my hood just as we broke out into the open.

  We were free of Oasis, but the problem of how to make our way down the mountain still remained.

  “So, now what?” Sabina asked, looking at me expectantly.

  “Now we get away from this damn place,” I grunted, taking the lead.

  I had no idea where to go, but I figured the more distance we put between ourselves and the House Agents, the better. We came up the northern face of Mount Halas on The Walk, so I decided we would head south and hope for some luck. I guessed that First, Second, and Third Step would have been alerted by now and would be watching for us, so there was little choice but to find another way down. I knew the forces intent on capturing us believed we had the codex and that they wouldn’t stop searching until they found us. I just prayed they wouldn’t discover the dead House Agents until we were far away.

  We headed off through the darkness, clutching our cloaks against the harsh wind that whistled along the rocks and peppered our eyes with tiny, knife-like shards of ice. The route that I had chosen proved to be a poor one, slippery in the dark, with swooping drifts of snow piled up against hundreds of small boulders that we had to skirt around continually. Twice we found a promising path that led downward, only to be disappointed when we ended up on windswept clifftops with nowhere to go, leaving us little choice but to turn back and start over.

  The hours went by as we trudged onward, saying little to each other as we conserved our energy, until finally the sky began to brighten overhead. I’d had the feeling that we were being watched several times as we walked, but there were no signs of anyone on our backtrail and I finally shrugged it off as merely paranoia and fatigue. Morning came reluctantly to the mountain as a weak, unenthusiastic sun broke through the cloud cover in scattered beams. Sabina and I paused to rest on a craggy overhang that gave a spectacular view of the landscape far below. I could see dense woodlands and deep valleys, and even a small river meandering through a field, all appearing toy-like from our lofty height. It would take days at the rate we were moving to reach the bottom, I realized in dismay.

  I started to say something to Sabina, then whirled as I sensed someone behind us. A man stood twenty feet away beneath the splayed branches of a gnarled pine tree with his arms crossed over his chest. His hair was silver and long, shorn on either side. He wore a light cloak that hung open to the wind, revealing an animal hide shirt and trousers. It was a Tapeau.

  I took a step forward, motioning Sabina behind me as I showed the Tapeau my short sword. The man seemed unimpressed, and he stared at me expressionlessly. His eyes were dark, almost black, and they seemed alive with intelligence.

  “What do you want?” I demanded.

  “To take you where you wish to go,” he said simply. His voice was low and deep, with little emotion in his words.

  I stared in disbelief, hardly able to comprehend what the man had just said. “You mean down the mountain?” The Tapeau nodded, unmoving except for the occasional blink of his eyes. “Why?” I asked suspiciously.

  “The Tapeau repay their debts.”

  “Debt? What debt?”

  “You gave Tan-te-ak justice, and for this, the Tapeau feel gratitude. We have decided to help you.”

  I thought of the man Laurea had killed in Oasis. Tan-te-ak? I wondered. It could only be. “How could you know what happened?” I asked. “There was no one else there.”

  “Nothing happens on the mountain that we do not know about,” the Tapeau said. “The square heads search for you and will not rest until they have captured you. But they are like children stumbling around in the dark and have finally asked for our help.” I frowned. Square heads? He had to mean the House Agents. “We have agreed to help them,” the Tapeau continued. The man’s face cracked slightly in what might have been a smile. “Though our help will take the square heads west, where their swords and belligerent ways will be nullified.” He bowed. “So it has been decided. So it shall be.” He swept his arm behind him. “We must go.”

  “There are others with us,” I said. “They’re waiting in First Step. Can you get word to them?”

  The Tapeau shook his head firmly. “They headed south four days ago.”

  “What?” I said in surprise.

  “Son Partal told them that you and the girl died on The Walk,” the Tapeau explained. “The one with the big nose did not believe him at first, but the Son can be compelling. The Rock soldiers made certain that the men left First Step after speaking with the Son, despite the angry one’s protests.”

  Malo, I knew. I cursed under my breath, thinking of Jebido, and how devastated he must have been at the news we were dead. Now he believed he’d lost both his sons, all for a codex that had been gone for centuries. It was maddening.

  “What about Waldin’s cave?” I asked. “If you know so much, how come you didn’t know it was there?”

  “We have always known of it,” the Tapeau said, surprising me.

  “Yet, you did nothing, knowing what was inside?” I demanded.

  The Tapeau shrugged. “We are the wardens of Oasis. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything beyond the task we have been given is merely clutter that ensnares the mind with doubts. The Tapeau have no doubts. So it has always been. So it shall always be. Now come, we must go.”

  We had little choice but to follow the Tapeau as he led us northward along a barely seen path. We walked for at least an hour, moving uphill the entire time. I began to protest at one point that we were going the wrong way, that we needed to go down, but the expression on the Tapeau’s face changed my mind and I fell silent. Our guide had said he would help us. I needed to have faith that he meant what he had said.

  Finally, we reached a thicket of snow-covered trees and the Tapeau skirted them, pausing on a rocky bluff. Three odd-looking animals stood perilously close to the edge of the cliff, digging through the thinly-crusted snow there to find anything edible.

  “Markhor,” the Tapeau grunted to us.
He moved toward the animals, speaking in a strange language and holding out his hand. The Markhor came forward eagerly, nibbling at the green shoots that he’d drawn from his cloak. The Tapeau smiled as he looked back at us. “They can be stubborn and temperamental at times, but nothing can climb these mountains like the Markhor.”

  “You expect us to ride those?” Sabina asked, looking horrified.

  The Markhor were perhaps four feet tall at the shoulder, with long, grizzled coats of light brown and black. They had wispy, comical beards that hung to their chests, and their horns were curled and twisted strangely, reaching almost three feet in length back over their necks.

  The Tapeau didn’t respond as he gestured us closer, motioning that we should mount.

  “I can’t ride one of those,” I protested. “I’m too big.”

  The Tapeau waved his hand dismissively, indicating the biggest of the Markhor, who I guessed must have topped out at several hundred pounds. “Tabent will bear your weight easily. You shall see. He is much stronger than his size might lead you to believe. Have no fear.”

  “I’m not getting on one of those things,” Sabina said, shaking her head stubbornly.

  Our guide’s face hardened, the first sign I had seen of anger in him. “If you do not wish the help of the Tapeau, then I will go.”

  “Of course we want your help,” I said before Sabina could respond. I held up a hand. “Just give us a moment.” I took Sabina’s arm and drew her several feet away. “We have to do this,” I insisted. “There is no other way.”

  “But those creatures,” Sabina said, looking back over her shoulder. “They’re hideous.”

  “They probably think that about us, too,” I said, forcing a smile. I put my hands on Sabina’s shoulders. “It wouldn’t have been my first choice either, but the Tapeau wouldn’t be suggesting we ride these creatures if it weren’t safe. We need to trust him.”

  “Are you sure it’s the only way?” Sabina asked.

  “The only way that makes any sense,” I answered. I squeezed her shoulders, hating myself for what I was going to say next. “And once we are down the mountain, we’ll go to your village, just like you asked.”