Chased By Fire (Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Echoing through the forest came the call of an Incendin hound. They hadn’t heard from the hounds since finding the destroyed Aeta caravan. Another voice, then another, answered the call. He waited, counting at least a half-dozen distinct cries.

  A pack.

  “Does that mean the lisincend are still out there?” Tan asked.

  “If they are, we will sense them,” Roine said.

  Cobin clutched Bal to him. “Like Nor did? Like the Aeta?”

  “Besides Zephra, would any in Nor have known what they felt?”

  Cobin looked as if he readied a harsh retort, but he bit it off and looked over to Tan. “Probably not.”

  “I should, though.”

  “But you haven’t,” Cobin said.

  “Not so far. But we should be safe still tonight. There’s a limit to their power.”

  Cobin glanced down at Bal. “A limit? Didn’t seem like it in Nor.”

  Roine sighed. “That was a powerful demonstration. They won’t be able to do the same again so soon.”

  “Velminth will be safe?” Tan asked.

  Roine looked at Cobin and Bal before turning to Tan. “I don’t know. I doubt we’ll see anything like what happened in Nor. Beyond that…”

  Tan nodded. For Cobin, they needed to check.

  They continued onward. As they made their way forward, following the prints, Tan began to doubt their direction. Tan had never approached Velminth from any direction other than the road. They seemed too high for Velminth, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that the small mountain town was nearby.

  They reached a small stream. Tan waded across, thinking to follow the tracks as they continued to climb, but saw no additional tracks on the other side of the stream. Tan wandered up and down the stream, searching for signs he might have missed but saw nothing.

  “They stop here,” Tan said.

  “You see nothing on the other side of the stream?” Roine asked.

  Tan shook his head.

  “Perhaps they waded through the stream itself,” Cobin offered. He still cradled Bal in his arms, letting Roine lead the horse.

  The painful cry of the Incendin hounds broke the silence of the forest, nearer this time. The horses whinnied and stomped their feet, made every bit as uncomfortable by the sound. Thankfully, Bal seemed to be sleeping in Cobin’s arms. There was no answering call.

  Tan looked at the darkening sky. The longer they traveled, the more treacherous their footing became. “We should stop for the night. There should be some old mine shafts along the way. We could be safe there.”

  Cobin eyed the stream and then looked to Tan, nodding agreement. “He’s right. And she needs to rest. We’ll all feel better if we sleep.”

  Roine sighed. “Won’t do us any good getting hurt tripping over a root.”

  They had not gone more than two hundred paces when something in the fading light stopped Tan short.

  “What is it?” Roine asked.

  Tan pointed to the ground at the small indentation half covered by leaves and debris. “Another print. Hound.”

  Roine looked at the stream then up to the sky that had continued to darken. Soon it would be too dark to see much more than the outline of the trees. “How long do you think you could track this still tonight?”

  Tan considered the lighting and the tracks. “Not long.”

  “Then we’ll go until you can’t see it any longer,” Roine said. He unsheathed his sword and held it ready as they followed the tracks.

  As the last of the daylight faded and night grew darker around them, Tan became aware of something else. Light, far in the distance, flickered faintly ahead of them. “Could that be Velminth?” he asked aloud.

  Roine’s face was an unreadable mask. “We need to be careful here. If there were hounds…”

  They approached slowly before realizing stealth wasn’t necessary.

  The stream they followed flowed down a steep rocky grade and led to a large clearing. Several fires burned brightly on makeshift pyres. Velminth spread out beneath them, small wooden buildings practically abutting each other in the clearing. Though the mill could barely be seen toward the end of town, the scent of sawdust hung heavy in the air.

  Tan became aware of another sensation. The air temperature had risen and a dry heat radieted up from the town. The cool wind that had chased them all the way from Nor faded. Roine grabbed them and jerked them back to the trees.

  “Stupid,” he said quietly.

  “What?” Tan asked.

  “Me.” He shook his head again and his eyes darted around the small clearing around the town. “Can you feel it?”

  “It is warmer. Is that what you feel?”

  Cobin looked down at Bal, as if suddenly aware of what the others felt. “Not Velminth.”

  Roine nodded slowly.

  Tan looked between the two men, waiting for an answer. “What?”

  “The lisincend. They are here.”

  CHAPTER 16

  A Plan

  Tan followed Roine as he crept toward the rocky edge overlooking the town. Cobin stayed back, holding Bal against him. As he looked into the town, Tan wasn’t prepared for what he saw.

  Like Nor, Velminth had once been a mining town. Over the years the iron mines in the surrounding mountains had run dry and the people of the town had turned to logging for easier profit. The wide Drestin River ran near the south edge of town, winding slowly out of the mountains, across the plains, and all the way to Ethea and beyond. Loggers used the Drestin to send their bundles of logs downstream.

  The haphazard mining town had disappeared when the loggers took control. Now the small sturdy buildings of the town were neatly arranged. The streets of Velminth were wide and straight, making it easy for the logging carts to roll the felled trees toward the sawmill and the river. Tan remembered from his previous visits to Velminth the overwhelming scent of sawdust and the rough hardworking loggers. The people had always been courteous if not overtly friendly, and though he never quite understood why, his mother had always had a special place in her heart for the town.

  Now, a few lanterns lighted the wide streets, but it was enough to see the strange shadows flickering over the town. A sudden gust of wind from the high mountains set the lanterns shimmering, clearing the shadows briefly. As they moved and danced, Tan saw something he struggled to believe.

  A creature stalked near the north edge of town, practically slithering down the street toward the town square. There was no hair on its head and Tan could not make out any sign of ears, either. Its dark skin looked almost scaled and leathery.

  Tan gasped. Roine jerked a hand up and covered his mouth. He let go of him slowly.

  “That’s a lisincend?” Tan asked.

  Roine pushed them both down. A wave of heat radiated toward them, hot and dry, as if the moisture had been suddenly sucked from his skin. Tan licked his lips, trying to wet them, and painfully blinked his now-dry eyes.

  “Careful,” Roine warned. He looked back at Cobin. He sat back away from the edge, the reigns of the horses in one hand, Bal propped up on his shoulder with the other.

  “What was that?”

  “One of their weapons,” Roine answered. “They are fire shapers.”

  The heat gradually faded, though a warmth radiated from the town below, like a bellows fire blowing up to them. Roine crept closer, raising his head carefully to see over the stone ledge. Tan crawled up next to him, mimicking the man’s cautious movements.

  As he peaked over, the lisincend was no longer visible. “Where did it go?”

  Roine nodded toward the center of town. “Follow the heat haze.”

  A smoky haze hovered along the street and moved steadily, thickening. Another quick gust of wind fluttered the lamplight and caused the haze to clear briefly. Again he saw the frightening figure of the lisincend at the center of the haze.

  “They can use their shaping to hide.” Roine spoke softly, careful to keep his voice little more than the sounds of the ni
ght. “The heat becomes a veil.”

  Tan looked back down into Velminth and stared into the darkness. Two more areas appeared to have a haze hanging over them. How many more lisincend hid under the shadows? Between them and the Incendin hounds still roaming the forest, how would they escape? How would Cobin get Bal to safety?

  If only another gust of wind would blow over the haze, he might be able to see how many lisincend were out there. A pressure built behind his ears and a cold blast of northern wind whipped through the trees. The wind cleared the heat and the haze hanging over the streets of Velminth long enough for him to see two other lisincend.

  Tan pointed. “Three lisincend.”

  Roine nodded, staring at him, a strange expression on his face. “It’s rare to find lisincend working together. Three together tells me how important this artifact is to Incendin.” He paused and stared. Finally, he turned and looked back into town. “There is something else here.”

  While Tan watched the town, the wind still gusted. The heat radiating up to them from Velminth lessened. Other shapes prowled along the streets. Like an enormous wolf, large ears flickered at each sound and bright eyes searched the night, scanning it with an uncommon intelligence. Massive jaws twitched and then one of them howled.

  Tan counted at least a dozen hounds along the streets. Some paced while others sat relaxed on their haunches. All looked aware. Waiting.

  Other figures moved quickly through the town as well. Darkly dressed, they moved nervously through the streets, careful to avoid the hounds. They swerved away from where Tan had seen the lisincend, though the shroud of the heat haze covered them.

  A large, squat structure cast long shadows near what had been center of the town. It seemed slatted, like cage or a pen, and several hounds sat watching it. A few men paced nervously around its perimeter.

  Clouds shifted overhead, letting in a silver shaft of moonlight. There were people caged within the structure.

  “Roine?” he whispered.

  “I see it.”

  “What is it?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Tan turned to him, waiting. Roine looked back toward the cage and didn’t answer.

  A low whistle pierced the night. All the hounds suddenly stood, their stunted tails pointing straight behind them, ears all perked. Each hound moved toward the square at the sound. One of the lisincend stalked over to the pen and motioned to a man standing guard, grabbing him roughly by the wrist when he did not move fast enough.

  The man swung open the gate. The people within crowded back and away from the open door and their captors. Someone shouted but he couldn’t make out anything of the words, only fear and screams like nothing he had ever heard.

  “You shouldn’t watch,” Roine cautioned.

  Tan jerked free. “Is this what happened in Nor?”

  Roine shook his head. “You saw Nor. What happened there was something else entirely, destroyed before there was a chance for this type of torture.”

  Two captors pulled a man from the cage. The lisincend seemed to watch, though with the heat veil Tan could not be entirely certain. The moonlight gleamed across his flesh and Tan saw dark tattooes twining around the man’s arms. Tan’s breath caught as he recognized him.

  “He’s Aeta!”

  The man kicked and punched at his captors as they dragged him out of the pen. Voices inside screamed, their cries filling the night. Suddenly, the man was thrown toward the open part of the square. Now free, he stood, looking around with uncertainty. The terror in his eyes was plain, even from a distance.

  He ran.

  A rumble followed him, loud and painful, the roar of a dozen Incendin hounds all growling at once. It was the sound of thunder. Tan cringed away from it, unable to look away.

  As if one creature, the hounds throughout Velminth lunged. The Aeta never had a chance.

  He cried out as they caught him. The sound died in a flurry of eager howls. Blood exploded out from him as the dozen jaws latched onto him, tearing him apart.

  Tan turned away. Roine watched him. “You were lucky to survive them,” he said.

  He remembered how the hounds had treed him. What would have happened had they not been scared away? Would he have suffered a similar fate?

  He looked back toward the center of Velminth, unable to help himself. If the wagon driver had survived, had others of the Aeta? Amia?

  And what of Nor? Could there be people he knew down in Velminth? Other survivors?

  His mother?

  Emotion overwhelmed him. “We need to help them.”

  Roine shook his head. “There is no help for them.”

  “Not if we do nothing,” Cobin said.

  He’d crept toward the edge of the rock. Bal rested back near the horses, not moving. Anger twisted Cobin’s face, an expression Tan had never seen from him.

  Roine shook his head. “I’ve faced one of the lisincend and barely survived. There are at least three lisincend down there.” He sighed. “Anything we tried would only lead to our capture too.” He shook his head head. “It would be best if we moved on. Hide for the night. Get Cobin and Bal away from here, down the mountains and to safety. Tan and I will keep going up. We need distance between us and the hounds.”

  Tan looked down at Velminth, staring at the barely visible shapes hidden in the cage. The sound of quiet whimpers penetrated the silence of the night. The hounds had finished their meal, leaving little of the Aeta other than a dark stain upon the ground. He couldn’t see the lisincend.

  Could he leave the Aeta to the same fate as the wagon driver? And if there were any survivors from Nor, could he just leave them?

  “I have to try something.”

  “Even if all three of us did this, we couldn’t rescue those people from the hounds, let alone the lisincend. What you are suggesting is suicide.” He shook his head. “I have to get to the upper pass before Incendin. I can’t do that if I’m dead.” Thunder rolled in the distance, as if in emphasis.

  Tan imagined the Aeta trapped in the cage, perhaps Amia among them. Or his mother. He couldn’t live with himself if he did nothing. “We need to try. I’ve got my bow…all we need is a distraction.”

  Cobin placed a hand on his shoulder. “I will help.”

  “Cobin—Bal needs you.”

  A grim look tightened his mouth. “And them? If we do nothing, how do I explain that to her?” He looked from Tan to Roine. “Look, I can be a distraction. Make enough noise that I can draw them off. Bal will be safe.”

  “This is foolish—”

  Roine said it louder than intended and his voice carried into the quiet night. A low growl from one of the hounds answered.

  When the growling died away, Roine turned to both of them. “You can’t hope to rescue those people. Even with a dozen shapers, you couldn’t rescue them.”

  “They are people,” Tan said.

  Roine looked at him with a pained expression. Tan could tell he wanted to help, but the desire to reach the mountain pass before Incendin—the lisincend and the hounds—weighed against him.

  Another scream from the pen made them all turn. Tan waited, anxious as he wondered whether the lisincend would feed another Aeta to the hounds. When the sound died off, Roine turned to them.

  “If I agree to help, we will do this my way.”

  Roine looked at the town and the wind picked up again, revealing the lisincend briefly. Two stood near the edge of the town square. Another stood at the edge of town surrounded by several hounds. The rest of the hounds scattered through the town, prowling after the men not in the pen.

  “This will require two diversions. I will provide one.” He stopped and looked over to Cobin. “You will be the other. Take Bal. Head down the slope on horseback. Make some noise as you go, but get her to safety. You just need to distract them long enough for my diversion to be effective.” Roine turned to Tan. “Your role will be to sneak into town and open the cage. Once you do this, you run.”

  Cobin looked
at Tan and then down into the town. “Tan and I should provide the diversions,” he said. “We know how to move in the forest and—”

  Roine cut him off. “My way.”

  Cobin watched Tan before finally nodding.

  What Roine asked was dangerous. Could he sneak into Velminth, all the way into the center of town, past the hounds and the lisincend, and release an unknown number of prisoners?

  But he had to try. He couldn’t simply leave these people to die as Roine suggested, not and live with himself later. Even thinking about it left him thinking of his mother admonishing him.

  A howl erupted, breaking the quiet of the night. The sound was nearby and followed by a harsh throaty growl. The hounds in Velminth all stood, hackles up, and sniffing the air. Ears flicked and turned and their eyes stared into the night, piercing the darkness.

  “Great Mother!” Roine swore under his breath.

  Cobin scooped Bal off the ground. She moaned briefly.

  “Are you ready?” Roine asked.

  Cobin looked down at Bal. “Just get downhill?”

  “Make a little noise. I’ll do the rest.”

  “How will I know?”

  Roine smiled. “You’ll know.”

  The hounds began baying. They had been scented.

  Roine met Tan’s eyes. “Wait until the hounds leave. Then do what you can to save the people down there.”

  With that, he ran into the darkness, disappearing.

  Cobin watched him go. “Tan…if this don’t go well—”

  Tan didn’t look at his friend. “I have to try.”

  “Your pa would be proud.”

  Tan swallowed the thick lump in his throat. “Go. Get Bal to safety.”

  Cobin clapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll see each other again. I promise you that.”

  Tan turned away. He didn’t want Cobin to see him cry twice in one day.

  CHAPTER 17

  Rescue

  The rocky slope overlooking Velminth was Tan’s safest option. He scrambled up the slope to reach the small stream, afraid to leave a scent the hounds could follow. The water was colder than it had been earlier in the day, and though his heart was beating wildly, the cold still startled him.