by Cindy Dees
It was an underhanded tactic, using his feelings for her against him, but he subsided reluctantly. One day he would kill Ki’Raiden. He would get back his father’s sword and he would avenge Ty’s and Serica’s deaths. Just not this day.
Finished fighting? Cicero mouthed at him.
He nodded, and the elf and Eben rolled off of him cautiously.
Fury still bubbling in his gut, he turned his head slightly to hear the murmured conversation better. It lay right at the edge of his hearing, but he managed to tune out the random forest sounds and was able to make out most of the discussion.
Anton was speaking. “… give me Tiberius’s sword.”
“No,” the Boki grunted. “Dis foh’ my fathuh.’” Anton opened his mouth to respond but Ki’ Raiden cut him off. “No ahh’gue. Mine.”
Anton huffed. “Have you at least got the sanguine fruits?”
“Uhh-huh. You gah’ maps?” Ki’Raiden grunted in reply.
What was this? The governor was doing some sort of trade with the Boki? To what possible end? Aurelius and Selea looked thunderstruck.
Will and the others watched as the Boki pulled out a small skin, unwrapped it to reveal a handful of bloodred fruits about the size of plums. The orc handled them carefully, using the skin to prevent his flesh from ever touching the fruits. He rewrapped the fruits and handed the whole thing over to Anton.
In return, Anton pulled a rolled parchment out of his vest. It looked to be several sheets of vellum rolled tightly together and held by a ribbon.
“All heah?” Ki’ Raiden demanded.
“Yes, yes. The defenses of Talyn are all there. Both outlying lands and the keep’s protections. You know what to do, right?”
Ki’Raiden grinned, flashing tusks and teeth. “Uhh-huh.”
Selea edged backward on his belly, and everyone in the party followed suit carefully until they were well away from Anton and Ki’Raiden. They waited tensely where they were as Anton and the Boki parted ways and disappeared toward their respective forces.
“Now what?” Will whispered.
Selea answered, “My old friend and I have to rejoin the governor’s forces and see if we can prevent a wholesale slaughter out here. If we can turn this fight around, we might just be able to dissuade the Boki from retaliating for this ill-advised attack with an invasion of the settled lands like they did the last time Anton sashayed out here to engage them.”
Will had not finished absorbing that shockingly blunt observation before the two elder elves had disappeared into the trees. And just like that, he and his companions were alone once more. Silence settled around them and the members of the party traded looks of exhaustion and relief. They’d done it.
Rosana repeated Will’s question. “Now what?”
Eben was first to speak. “We cannot leave. Kendrick is out here somewhere. And if I know my liege, Landsgrave Hyland will resurrect and come here immediately to search for his son. If we could find him and his men, we could get some healing.”
“And food,” Sha’Li muttered.
“And swords to protect us,” Cicero added.
Will looked around, getting his bearings. For a moment he recalled the first time he was lost in a wood, fleeing Boki. So much had changed since then. He had changed. “Hyland died back that way. If his body has dissipated from the battlefield, we will know he has already resurrected.”
Everyone nodded at Will, and he was silently elected their de facto scout. He moved out slowly, relieved not to be running through these woods for his life for once.
Maybe it was the dragging fatigue, or maybe he placed too much trust in his Bloodroot-enhanced senses, or maybe Krugar’s men were just too good. But all of a sudden the woods around them exploded with soldiers brandishing weapons.
Will jolted and his staff began to come up, but then the sheer number of swords pointing at them registered. That and the fact that everyone in the party was completely without skills at the moment.
At least their captors were human.
“’Oo in the bloody winds be ye, and whot in curses be ye about, a-wanderin’ out ’ere?” a gap-toothed soldier wearing a sergeant’s rank demanded.
“Um, we’re lost,” Will replied as casually as he could muster.
“Lost? Lost?” the sergeant sputtered. “’Oo ever ’eard of a bunch o’ kids goin’ lost in these ’ere woods?”
Will improvised as the faces hardened around them. This bunch was going to kill them first and ask questions later if he didn’t come up with something good, and fast. “We’re looking for Landsgrave Hyland. We have important news for him regarding his son.”
“So ye strolled on out in the middle of Boki lands to tell ’im?”
It sounded ridiculous to Will, too. But he nodded firmly. A chorus of voices burst out around them.
“Preposterous!”
“Take ’em to the boss.”
“Aye. He’ll be interested in these ones.”
“Arrest ’em!”
Many voices took up that phrase, shouting for their arrest. The sergeant nodded and straightened his shoulders. “By order of the guvnuh of Dupree, I place ’ee under arrest. Surrenduh them weapons!”
Will had no choice. He handed over his staff. His attempt to keep his belt dagger failed, though, when a soldier gestured to it as well and held out an expectant hand. They were patted down and all their weapons seized. He felt naked without any weapon whatsoever.
There was a commotion over whether or not to arrest Raina, and the soldiers settled on ordering her detained but not actually arrested. While the rest of them summarily had their hands tied behind their backs, she was allowed to stand unfettered beside them. Not that she could do a thing to help them until her magic returned. And even then, now that she was White Heart it wasn’t as if she could single-handedly engineer an escape.
Not that any of the six of them were in any condition to resist the governor’s men. It was laughable, really. They were treated as dangerous criminals when they could barely stand upright and four of them had resurrected within the hour and were barely clinging to life.
The soldiers tromped noisily through the woods toward some unknown destination. The squad of Imperial men seemed confident that its numbers would protect it from attack by the Boki. Personally, Will thought they were fools for thinking thus, but far be it from him to say so.
In about a half hour, they were dragged into a makeshift camp. Guards had been posted around the clearing, and soldiers lounged at rest or nursing wounds all around.
The sergeant marched them over to a small folding table with a cluster of men around it. One of them looked up, irritated, as the sergeant cleared his throat. Will winced in recognition. Krugar.
“Well now, what have we here?” Krugar commented. He peered back and forth between Will, Raina, and Rosana. “You again. What are you three doing out here … and with friends?”
“They sez they’s lookin’ fer Hyland,” the sergeant answered for Will.
“Is that true?” Krugar asked shrewdly, staring down Will.
“Uhh, yes, sir. Hyland’s son has been kidnapped and we believe his captor brought him in this direction. We were hoping to find Hyland and help him mount a search.”
“You expect me to buy such a thin excuse?” the soldier asked, not unkindly.
“Well, yes,” Will answered. With more force he added, “It is the truth.”
“I highly doubt anyone who is not Boki will be alive in these woods by the morrow. The hornet’s nest is well kicked.”
Privately, Will had to agree.
“There is more to this story than you are telling me, boy. You shall return to Dupree as my prisoners and we will sort it out, there. The governor will want to hear the entire tale of how young Kendrick was kidnapped.”
Despair coursed through Will. For all he knew, Anton had arranged the kidnapping and would kill them for having survived it. Will tried to come up with an argument that would sway Krugar, but drew a blank. And in the m
eantime, he and the others were dragged individually to trees and tied to them.
“White Heart, heal my men,” Krugar ordered.
“I have no mana with which to do so, sir, or I gladly would. If I could be allowed a nap and perhaps a bite to eat, I might be strong enough to heal in a little while.”
She was escorted over to one of the cook fires and given a bowl of something hot and stew-like. Will’s mouth watered as he watched her. But then he noticed something else. She was chatting up the cook something fierce. Traitor. Bitter fury coursed through him that she should be coddled like a noble while they sat, tied to trees, miserable and starving.
His rancor festered for maybe a quarter hour when, without warning, the cook from the fire strolled over to where they were tied. The fellow muttered, “It ain’ much, but ’ere’s some crusts soaked in stew for ye.”
Will took the thick, chewy crust offered to him and wolfed it down, barely slowing down to savor the thick broth soaking it. As the worst of the pains in his stomach subsided, it dawned on him that he’d been entirely irrational just now. He should have trusted Raina’s intentions. Was it just him … or had that been a bit of Bloodroot’s malice creeping forward?
The thought chilled him. Was this what he had to look forward to? Suspicion, rage, and hatred? What had he done, keeping the disk when he could’ve gotten it removed? The full implication of Gawaine’s insistence that this be entirely his choice struck him with force. This was why the king had been so adamant. Will had no one but himself to blame for being in this mess.
He sighed and tried to settle into a more comfortable position hugging the tree. Too bad there wasn’t a dryad around to free him. But the fae wouldn’t show themselves to a large force of armed soldiers if he had to guess.
If Krugar’s men killed Will where he sat, he could not work up the energy to care right now. What would come, would come. Despite the ground being wet and cold, the bark rough under his cheek, his eyes closed and slumber took him.
CHAPTER
33
The sun was setting when someone shook Raina’s shoulder. She woke groggily, disoriented. The familiar canopy of menacing black was far overhead, but where were her friends, and who was this soldier frowning at her?
“Be ye rested, ’ealer?”
She gathered magical power to herself experimentally. The familiar tingle passed across her skin and her hands glowed in the gathering dusk. “It appears so.”
“Come wit’ me.”
She followed the soldier, but insisted on stopping where Eben lay near death, tied to a tree. It took her several minutes to channel enough healing into her friend to clear the dire wolf’s plague from his blood. But once he was clean, she nodded up at the soldier, who led her away from the clearing quickly. She spied Cicero watching her and smiled her reassurance at him, but that was all she had time for before the soldier took off running.
She dutifully jogged after him, and before long arrived at a battlefield.
“’Eal the humans. Ignore the greenskins.”
“That’s not how it works. I heal everyone without prejudice.”
“Then start ’ere, and work thy way across the field. If’n we be lucky you’ll run out o’ juice afore ye reach them Boki scum.”
She gave the soldier her most regal Lady Charlotte look. “You do not have jurisdiction over the White Heart. I shall heal as I see fit. Now step aside.”
In point of fact, the victory appeared to have gone to the humans, and although there were many wounded, there were not many dead bodies upon the ground. She did not spare much magic for the wounded, merely easing the worst of their injuries and ensuring they were ambulatory.
In a few minutes she reached the Boki line. The slaughter was horrendous. A battle mage had been at work here, and the majority of the dead had massive holes blasted in them, burned and blackened flesh bearing testament to the power of the caster who’d attacked them.
The soldier who’d tried earlier to tell her what to do hovered nearby. Apparently, he’d been appointed her bodyguard or something.
“Why’n ye wastin’ good mana on such beasts?” he finally blurted.
She snapped, “I find the Boki to be honorable in the extreme, and as I recall, these are their lands. Their home. We are the invaders, here, not them!”
Her soldier escort fell silent at that.
Most of the Boki were beyond the help of a life spell, but here and there she found a wounded or unconscious one. She ran across a conscious orc and healed the worst of his wounds for him. Another orc lay right beside him, unconscious. She was surprised as she reached for the second orc, that the first one held his companion down and then nodded to her. She cast her healing into the second orc.
The newly conscious orc lurched under his friend’s fists looing around wildly. Orc number one muttered, “Bal. Tha. Zar.”
The second orc struggled for a moment and then subsided all of a sudden. “Ahh. Oh. Kay.”
The first orc helped the second one to his feet. With a nod to Raina, the two jogged off the field.
Krugar’s man stared at the retreating pair of orcs. He lowered his weapon slowly. She declared forcefully, “These warriors are granted safe passage from the field of battle if my colors heal them. Understood?”
When the soldier hesitated, she added, “Unless, of course, you wish me to report you to the Heart and get you censured and denied healing from any Heart healer in the future.”
The fellow actually took a step back from her.
“Leave me,” she ordered. “You can watch from over there.” She pointed at the far side of the field well behind the human lines.
She turned to the orc warrior, who grinned up at her after a fashion. “Bal. Tha. Zar,” he grunted.
She smiled broadly at the orc, pleased at the compliment. “Balthazar, indeed.” And then she turned her attention back to the other orcs sprawled on the ground. It was full dark before she finished, her back aching as she straightened.
She spied a tall, lone figure watching her from across the field. Krugar. He had taken the place of his man watching her. What was Krugar’s story? He was clearly an experienced veteran, a career soldier, an officer in a foreign legion. And yet here he was in the hinterlands, serving one such as Anton. How had that come to pass? She made her way around the corpses she had been too late to help toward Krugar.
“How does a young girl gain enough rank to wear those colors? And furthermore, how does she end up way out here in the wild lands?” Krugar asked as she drew near.
“Are you in need of healing, sir?” she asked, sidestepping his questions.
“Nay.”
“Then may I inquire as to the source of the blood on your tunic? It appears to come from yon slice in your side.”
“That? It is but a nick.”
She rolled her eyes. Warriors were all the same. They yelled to the heaven about a cut on their finger but totally ignored the gaping wounds in their sides. Exasperated, she glared up at him. “Fast or slow?”
“Just hit me,” he bit out, bracing for the burn of fast healing. She blasted the magic into his side and he absorbed it without comment or even flinching. Clearly, he’d been battle healed before.
“What will you do with me and my friends?” she ventured to ask.
“As I said I would. I shall take you back to Dupree to the governor.”
She kept her face neutral, as the man was watching her entirely too closely for comfort. Caution was called for around this one.
“Come,” he said harshly. “I have more men down over this way. My lions were hit hard.”
She followed Krugar around in the woods for what seemed like hours. Gradually, the shape of the day’s earlier battle became clear to her. Krugar, his most senior battle leaders, and a powerful battle mage appeared to have joined forces and struck at the heart of the Boki forces. It looked as if the orcs had been taken by surprise by the bold move. Once the Boki had scattered into small parties, they’ been easier to
pick off.
“Who was your caster?” she asked Krugar as casually as she could.
“Who else? Only Aurelius could do what you have seen this evening.”
Why on Urth would the solinari help the governor’s forces? Was it because of his fealty oath, or was it subterfuge? Or was it nothing more than enlightened self-interest? Gawaine’s warning to be extremely careful who she trusted rang in her ears.
She was surprised when she and Krugar returned to camp to see that tents had been erected, and it appeared that the soldiers planned to stay here for a few days. “Does the governor entrench, then?” she blurted.
Krugar’s face might as well have been made of stone as he answered, “The governor’s already well on his way back to Dupree. I stay to mop up. To collect any stray soldiers who might have gotten separated from the main force. And then to march the wounded back to Dupree at a pace they can maintain.”
Stray soldiers, huh? More like deserters attempting to flee conscripted service in the governor’s army.
* * *
Will’s frustration was boundless as, true to his word, Krugar stayed in the Forest of Thorns for two more days, rounding up soldiers and skirmishing here and there with Boki. But for the most part, the orcs seemed satisfied to retreat deeper within their forests until the intruders left.
Eben was beside himself at being forced to leave this area. He was sure they would lose the trail of Kendrick’s kidnapper and never find it again. Will tried to reassure the jann under his breath without Krugar’s men overhearing, but he had to be circumspect in what he said. Eben was not appeased in the least.
For her part, Sha’Li seemed more frantic even than Eben. Whether it was captivity that made her so panicked, or the prospect of facing Anton, Will could not tell. But he half-expected her to chew off one of her arms like a wild animal and make an escape if they were out here much longer.
The third morning dawned, and Will was almost relieved to wake to Krugar’s troops efficiently breaking camp. He had to give the man credit. His personal cadre was well trained and disciplined. A fine fighting unit, curse it.
The long march back to Dupree was slow going. The weather had gone rainy and cold and the paths were slick with mud. Raina was able to heal most of the wounded to a state where they could walk readily enough, but she could not stop the soaking rains.
