"You seem to know a lot about this. Are you a sorceress?" I asked her quietly. I was used to speaking of magic in hushed tones, and I wasn't sure she would be comfortable admitting that she could use it.
She waved my caution aside, "I have some ability with magic, or vaetra as we call it. I've studied it, but my skills are limited. For me it's just a tool that helps me get my job done, rather than a vocation in itself."
Her comment surprised me. I had never considered that there might be a middle ground. It seemed to me that everyone who had the ability to use magic focused on developing their skill to the exclusion of just about everything else.
"Is there a difference between magic and this 'vaetra' you mentioned?" I asked.
She snorted. "There is to us, but most people don't understand the distinction. Magic is what the man on the street corner does when he pulls a coin from behind your ear. It's just slight-of-hand tricks. Vaetra is a living force that only a sorcerer can transform into a physical effect. To call a sorcerer a 'magician' is an insult."
We both fell silent when we heard the jingle of harnesses and rattle of wagon wheels approaching. The wagon appeared through the trees around a curve in the road with the driver urging his pair of draft horses to pick up their speed. The wagon was heavily loaded with hay.
"Make way, please," he shouted out to us as he approached. "Need to stay in the middle of the road."
The five of us eased our horses to the sides of the road so the wagon could pass between us. "You're running a bit late," I called to him as he got closer.
"Don't I know it!" he replied. "If I don't get this load to Northshore before the road thaws, I'll be up to my hubs in mud," he added as he bounced by.
"Safe journey!" I called after him. He just raised a hand and waved it in acknowledgement, and was nearly unseated when the wagon hit a particularly large rock in the roadway.
Barek snorted and shook his head. "Won't do him much good if he breaks a wheel," he muttered. The rest of us laughed our agreement and continued on our way.
Rounding the curve in the road, we found ourselves at the edge of Dunver.
***
We rode slowly through the village of Dunver. The village proper wasn't much more than a small collection of thatched wood huts and a tiny shop with sundries. The day was far enough along that a few villagers were wandering around taking care of their various duties. They glanced over at us as we passed, occasionally waving or offering a greeting. A man carrying an armload of wood came around the side of one of the huts and stopped short at the site of the giant Winterman in our midst, but he continued on his way when he saw no sign of aggression from our group. A couple of dogs barked at us, but two young children yelled at them and hurried forward to chase the dogs back to their homes.
We were an imposing group. Five well-armed travelers on horseback tend to cause alarm, but most of the villagers looked more curious than concerned. Dunver straddled Riverview Road, the primary western route to Northshore, so the residents routinely saw a wide variety of travelers.
At the far side of the village square where the road continued out of Dunver to the west, Agent Delano spotted a well with a watering trough alongside it. She angled her horse over to the trough. A teenaged boy was busily filling a couple of large buckets from the smaller one that came up from the well.
"Would it be all right if we watered our horses?" she asked the boy.
He sized us up quickly. "Five coppers, ma'am, and you'll have to draw the water yourself."
The sum was outrageous, but Agent Delano didn't blink an eye. She responded flatly. "One copper and I won't have you arrested for attempted theft."
The boy smiled apologetically and shrugged as if to say it was worth a try. "How about two coppers and I'll draw the water for you?"
Agent Delano nodded her head in assent and dismounted to hand the boy the coins. The rest of us followed suit, glad for the opportunity to stretch our legs.
The boy filled the trough with water, and Agent Delano's horse drank first. The horses were not terribly thirsty because we had been riding through the cold morning, but they were ready for a little refreshment after the run we gave them.
I had been through Dunver on many occasions before, so I didn't feel compelled to give our surroundings more than a cursory glance. My attention went to my companions instead.
While Agent Delano worked the water transaction, Barek looked around briefly, took the reins from Talon and Daven, and waited to bring the horses to the trough with relaxed confidence. Talon took up a position just outside our cluster of horses and people, continuously scanning the edges of town. Daven stayed very close to Agent Delano's side and kept a close eye on every movement of the villagers. I nodded to myself in appreciation of the agents' teamwork and professionalism.
We could have saved ourselves the copper and just watered the horses from one of the many streams we'd pass along our journey, but I suspected that Agent Delano was using the coin to buy more than water. The villagers would remember her and appreciate the fact that she had contributed to their meager livelihood. One never knew when that kind of goodwill might come in handy.
The boy offered to top off our waterskins as well. Barek and I accepted, and then we mounted back up.
We left Dunver behind and continued east down Riverview Road. If Agent Delano's team had lost the thief where I was thinking they did, we didn't have far to go.
Chapter 5
Beyond Dunver, the road narrowed and wound its way along a steep hillside and through thick forest down toward the north bank of Teardrop River. Barek dropped behind a few paces and Talon took point position. Daven stayed alongside Sulana and I rode just in front of the two of them.
Before long, the forest opened up and gave us a broad view of the river valley. An osprey glided high over the river, watching for an unsuspecting fish, and an enormous bald eagle glared at us from atop a tall snag. The wide green river flowed to the west with hardly a ripple on its smooth surface.
We came to a fork in the road. The left fork eased down to the river's edge and ended at the planks of the short dock at the Dunver Ferry. Crossing the river on the ferry would take us onto South Riverview Road and through the Valley of Veils, which got its name from the veils of mist that frequently blanketed the area. Eventually, that direction would lead south to Plains End at the western border of Lakewoods Province.
The right fork became North Riverview Road, which continued along the north shore of the river. Talon continued down the right fork as he waved at the ferryman, who had emerged from his dockside hut at the sound of our approaching horses. The ferryman returned the wave and went back inside.
Sulana picked up her pace to ride alongside me. "There's something I've been wondering," she said.
"What's that?"
"Why did you agree to take this job for someone you knew was a criminal?" she asked. "The captain made it sound like you usually operate alongside the law."
"That's true. Normally, I would not have agreed to work for him," I confirmed. She looked over at me and waited for me to continue. I shrugged. "If he had asked me to help him retrieve the item, I'd have said no. But he asked me to help him find his partner."
Sulana thought about that for a moment, a skeptical frown appearing on her face. "Isn't that just semantics? I mean, find the man, find the item. Or so we hope."
"I understand what you're saying. But it wasn't so much what he asked, it was the way he asked it," I explained.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"He seemed afraid of what would happen if he failed to deliver the item to their employer, but he wasn't angry about the lost payment. What I saw was desperation and hope related to finding his partner and frustration at being prevented from doing it himself."
"That does seem unusual," Sulana muttered.
"When I got the note to meet with him, I was hoping for the best, but expected I'd have to tell him to go away. Instead, I found myself wanting to help him find his p
artner," I concluded.
"Well, either way, he'll have to answer for his theft," she said with an edge to her voice. "I'm just glad to hear you weren't planning to help them escape."
I chuckled and shook my head. "No, I may no longer be in the Guard, but I often work closely with them. On the other hand, the private work I do for hire sometimes does require a certain degree of...discretion."
"I think I understand that," she mused. "But it seems like a fine line to walk."
"You don't know the half of it," I said with a sigh.
When taking contracts, I refused work that would force me to break the law, but the reasons for why clients went to Raven Company instead of the Imperial Guard were many. In some cases, the Guard didn't have the resources or motivation to investigate a matter to the client's satisfaction, so the client would come to us for the help they needed. In other situations, the client specifically wanted to avoid involving the Guard. Those cases always had to be handled carefully.
Sulana looked ahead and pointed to a track--little more than a trail really--that led off the road to the north. "That's our turn," she said.
My suspicions were confirmed. "So, you followed the other man up that trail and lost him?" I asked.
"Yes. Is this the way to the home of that healer you mentioned?"
"It is," I said. I wondered if old Meghan could be in danger. Her Wards were good at keeping people away, but if the thief was able to get through them somehow, he could be holed up in her home. I frowned as I realized that this search could end in a hostage standoff.
Sulana was watching my face and seemed to read my mind. "You're concerned for the healer, aren't you?" she asked. I nodded, and she continued, "Well, let's see what we can find out first. It's possible the thief circled the Wards and escaped into the mountains."
Barek cleared his throat behind us and I looked back. He was scowling and shaking his shaggy head. The beads at the ends of his locks clicked together as if to emphasize his disagreement with her statement.
Sulana laughed. "Don't worry Barek, I'm not insulting your tracking skills. We just don't know what resources these thieves had available to them." Barek shrugged, his face noncommittal.
"Man of few words," I commented to Sulana.
"He's no chatterbox," she agreed.
"Can we get on with this?" Barek said.
Talon chuckled and led the way up the trail. The rest of us followed, shifting into single file.
The trail was just large enough for two horses to walk side-by-side, but by staying in the center, a rider was less likely to be struck by the encroaching tree branches. The local flora was quick to take advantage of any bit of light that managed to penetrate the tree canopy, which meant the trails needed to be cleared back every two or three years. This one was overdue.
We followed the deeply shadowed trail into the forested foothills, pulling our cloaks a little tighter around us to fend off the late-morning chill that persisted within the understory. We passed through a couple of clearings and reveled in the sudden expanse of deep blue sky and the warmth of the sun.
Along the way, Barek moved up to point position and Talon replaced him at the rear of the party. We passed a couple of offshoot trails, which I knew led to other cabins in the area, but Barek was convinced that our quarry had continued on.
At one of the trail intersections, we heard a branch crack above us in the trees. We all looked up, but the thick foliage made it impossible to see very far into the network of branches. Our hands went to our weapons, but there were no more sounds. The horses bunched together as we stopped.
Two of the horses shifted and whinnied as they caught the scent of something. Patches and the other horses raised their heads and perked their ears forward as they sniffed the air as well.
I looked up at the trees along the intersection, my eyes searching the bark just below the lowest branches. I finally found what I was looking for: a series of small gouges just under the lowest branches of one corner tree. "Everyone hold here for a moment," I said.
"What is it?" Sulana asked, reaching for her crossbow.
I held up my hand to stop her. "Try not to make any threatening moves. I know who it is and we're in no danger."
Daven seemed unconvinced. He edged his horse closer to Sulana's and kept his hand ready on his sword.
"Well then who is it," Sulana asked more insistently. "Why are we stopping?"
"This section of forest is home to a band of arbolenx," I answered.
"Arbolenx? What makes you think they'll talk to us? And how could they help us anyway?" she asked, shifting nervously in her saddle and peering up into the dense canopy.
Arbolenx are large intelligent felines that inhabit forests and make their homes in the tree canopy. They are capable of human speech, but rarely interact with humans. I could attest that this band was less reclusive than most.
"Not much happens around here that they don't see," I responded. "That branch snap was an invitation to speak. If they didn't want us to know they were here, we'd have never seen or heard a thing that would have betrayed their presence," I said as I dismounted from my horse.
I walked a few paces away from the others and stood near the tree that had been marked. I tilted my head back and made a show of sniffing the air. "I smell you, Ru-Rahl" I said aloud.
I glanced back at the others, who were looking at each other in confusion and over at me as if I'd lost my mind. They could smell nothing, of course, and neither could I really. I suppressed a smirk, thinking how the ritual words sounded insulting to a human. However, I knew that to an arbolenx, it was a greeting of respect.
There was a light rustling of branches, and I barely had time to register a blur of motion down the trunk of the tree as an arbolenx appeared on the ground in front of me. He settled back on his hind legs and regarded me with his deep green eyes, his pupils shrinking to slits as they adjusted to the brighter light on the ground.
As I told Sulana, we never would have been aware of their presence if they hadn't wished it. Arbolenx have natural camouflage magic, which is why Ru-Rahl seemed to blur as he descended the tree trunk. He was showing off. There could be a dozen more of his band up in the branches, and as long as they held still, we'd probably never spot them.
He glanced disdainfully over at the group of riders, who were watching with cautious interest and trying to calm their horses. Only Patches stood without agitation, since he had met Ru-Rahl several times before. The other horses shied at the sudden appearance of the predator, and Barek's big roan stallion nodded his head and pawed the ground.
Ru-Rahl was an exceptionally large and handsome example of his kind. Sitting, his head came up to my waist, and his fur was deep brown with faint black stripes along his shoulders and hips. He wore a back-pack, which left his paws (better described as sharply-clawed hands) free for climbing. Long black tufts of fur twitched nervously on the tips of his ears. Short, stiff black whiskers trembled on his cheeks as his nostrils took in the scents of the humans and animals before him.
Satisfied that no violence was imminent, he tilted his head back and sniffed the air emphatically as I had done. "I smell you, Zhalan. Wath seeg?"
I was certain that Ru-Rahl knew exactly why we were there, but since I was the one seeking help, it was only polite that I ask for it. Besides, when bargaining with arbolenx, one party must name the favor and the other must name the price.
"A man passed through here last night on horseback, probably moving swiftly. These riders attempted to follow him, but lost the trail," I added, gesturing toward the others. "I would like to know if you have information that can help us find him."
Ru-Rahl considered my request for a moment and glanced significantly at the others again. He wanted to make sure I understood that bringing armed riders to this meeting would increase the price of my favor. "One ravith," he stated.
One rabbit. The price was high by arbolenx standards, but worth it if he had anything at all useful to tell us.
I n
odded my head. "Agreed."
"Gounthed," he replied, which meant he had "counted" the rabbit toward my debt to him. Arbolenx speech avoids hard consonant sounds, like "t" and "k" because they resemble spitting, which in the feline world indicates fear or aggression.
"Human smell of vlud," Ru-Rahl finally volunteered.
"He smelled of blood?" I asked, and Ru-Rahl nodded once. "Did he continue up the trail on his horse?"
Ru-Rahl nodded again. "Inthu fear. No follow."
Into the fear, where Ru-Rahl's gang would not follow. He must have been referring to the Ward. "The fear didn't turn him away?"
Ru-Rahl shook his head negative, the claws on his front hands extending reflexively as he considered what he'd seen.
So the Ward hadn't affected the man on the horse. He must have had some kind of magical protection. Or perhaps his injury was so severe that he was delirious with pain. I wasn't sure if that would make a difference, though.
"Thank you, Ru-Rahl. The bargain is fair."
Ru-Rahl nodded once again, and in a single motion, leaped onto the trunk of the tree where his strong claws held him suspended. He looked over his shoulder at me and said, "Good hunthing Zhalan."
"Good hunting Ru-Rahl," I replied.
With two powerful strokes of his hind legs, Ru-Rahl disappeared up the tree and into the branches overhead. I walked back to the others.
I could feel Sulana's stare while I mounted Patches and gathered my reins. "I'm impressed," she said. "What did we learn? I didn't quite catch all of that."
I sat a little straighter in my saddle, pleased with having finally done something to impress this woman, and a little surprised to discover that it mattered to me. "We learned that our thief was injured when he came through here last night. We also learned that he went into the Ward, not around it, as you suspected." I said the last to Barek with a nod, and he gave a grim "I told you so" smile in return.
Sulana looked down the trail, thinking about what we'd learned. "I'm concerned that he was able to move through the Ward," she finally said. "That may imply he has sorcery at his disposal."
The Vaetra Chronicles: Book 01 - Vaetra Unveiled Page 4
