“Or the griffin.”
His pale eyes faced my friend, my guardian, my Bar. No way in hell will I allow that, I’ll kill him, I’ll tear out his eyes and squash them under my toes. I struggled, but against Bar’s incredible strength, I but wiggled, wormlike, in the grass under him. Bar growled, his lion springing forth, all the menace in the world in that sound.
“I’d snap his spine like a twig, and laugh as he shits himself. Much better, though, to capture him and take him back to Soudan in chains. Don’t you think? I’d enjoy watching his body torn apart by starving dogs in the Arena.”
Ja’Teel tittered. “So would the citizens. Not many griffin deaths entertained the multitudes these days.”
“You won’t kill anyone, you ass,” Rygel snapped. “If I have to transport each and every one of them to parts unknown, you won’t.”
“Do what you gotta do, my boy.”
“I’ll make it easier on myself,” Rygel said, walking toward the shadow. “I’ll kill you instead.”
Ja’Teel wheeled toward him. “You know that’s impossible,” he replied loftily. “Your magic can’t find me, nor can it destroy me, when I send out my shadow.”
“Care to make a wager on that?” Rygel asked, smiling, his fingers rubbing together under his chin. “You forget how powerful I am.”
Ja’Teel halted, his shadowed body stiff, eyes blazing their fear and hate.
“You forgot how I studied.”
Rygel walked closer, his long, slender fingers now reaching for Ja’Teel.
“Master Cassius taught me, you remember him? He found a way to follow a wizard’s essence back to his source. He showed me how to kill the source by stilling its nasty beating heart.”
Rygel stalked closer, grinning. “I’m a very apt pupil.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
Rygel reached for Ja’Teel’s black chest—
Ja’Teel abruptly vanished.
For a long, heartfelt minute, the world held its collective breath.
“Is he gone?” Raine demanded, wheeling about, searching.
Rygel drew in a ragged sigh, his shoulders drooping. “He is, my prince.”
I struggled, cursing, out from under Bar’s foot. Hissing, he stepped back, allowing me up, but his immense form still stood over me, wings flared, if Ja’Teel’s disappearance was but a feint. I staggered up, tripping over the whining wolf pup. I blinked. I’d forgotten him.
Scooping him up, I dropped him in Arianne’s lap for her to mind and stalked Rygel. Fury blinding me, fear choking me, I could barely walk a straight line. Yet I veered a close enough course to Rygel. I thrust my blade under his nose, forcing his gaze down into mine.
“Kel’Ratan,” I grated.
My boys ran in, Rannon and Alun, Yuri and Yuras, armed, ready for battle. Yet, their white skin told me of their fear. They might cheerfully die protecting me, they knew they couldn’t protect me from evil magic. Bar hissed, demanding I return to his protection at once. The wolf pup cried, frightened, his whines sharp and piercing.
Annoyingly, he ignored my blade so close to his vulnerable eye. Rygel smiled, his fingers brushing a lock of hair from my brow. “He’s fine, Princess.”
“And Corwyn?” Arianne screeched from somewhere behind me.
“Corwyn, too. They’re not far away and, while sore, quite alive.”
I might have fallen to my knees, weeping with relief, had Raine not gripped my arm. Dropping my sword to thump in the tall grass, I let him pull me close. I buried my face in his rock-hard chest and closed my eyes. Tears stung, but did not fall. His hugely muscled arms swept me into him tightly, cradling me as gently as he might an infant.
“How in the three heavens did he find us?” I murmured into Raine’s tunic.
“A tracking spell, he said.”
“Oh, that explains everything.” I twisted and squirmed in Raine’s arms, turning to face Rygel while still keeping Raine’s arms about me. “All right, master wizard,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Teach us. What was that he just did?”
Rygel ran his hand restlessly through his blonde mane. “Very quickly. A wizard can send his spirit, his essence, yet not quite his soul, out wherever he wants. His powers remain with him, and he can do anything he so desires. Nor can he be killed, as his flesh isn’t really there.”
“You can do this, too?” I asked.
Rygel blew out a gust of breath and nodded. “I can. But as I’m regulated by certain morals of conduct, I don’t—unless in dire need. Most of us heed the rules.”
“So by placing this spell on Corwyn, he knew precisely where we were?” Raine asked, his chest vibrating against my back.
“Exactly, my prince.”
I shrugged, hampered as I was by Raine’s massive arms. “You’ll remove the spell and Ja’Teel can’t find him, or us.”
“Uh—”
“Horses!” I called. “Everyone up, let’s move. Rygel, where did you—er—”
“Translocate them.”
“Thank you. Where did you translocate Kel’Ratan and Corwyn?”
Rygel jerked his chin at the grove of trees he and Raine galloped toward less than an hour past, his voice subdued. “There, Princess.”
Rannon, mounted up and hauling Mikk behind him, slid to a trampling halt beside Raine and me. His big hands around my waist, Raine bodily shoved me into my saddle. As Rufus stood at his shoulder, Raine seized his pommel and vaulted aboard his snorting stallion. “Rygel?”
Rygel swiftly mounted up. I paid scant attention to his averted face, yet noted his unhappiness, his dark concern, somewhere in the depths of my frazzled brain. Deal with it later, I half-thought, gathering my reins as Mikk danced under me, fretting.
Yuri and Yuras helped Arianne onto her grey mare, handing the huge dark pup up to her. Before he could flee, Alun seized Tor and planted him up behind her. Left and Right bolted toward their black stallions, grazing about twelve rods away, obviously panicked they’d not find spots near me. Bar grunted sourly, flaring his wings for flight while Rannon nudged his horse in behind mine. He hugged Corwyn’s dangerous red roan tight to his knee.
Witraz vaulted onto his piebald, the reins to Kel’Ratan’s bay stallion in his fist. “Your Highness?”
“What? Oh.”
With a wink, Witraz held out to me, hilt first, my sword. I dropped it when Raine held me close, and forgot I dropped it, in my anger and anxiety. I sheathed it, and kicked Mikk into high gear.
Mikk accelerated like chained lightning. I outraced Raine, Rannon and even Bar, who shrieked in outrage. I heard his wings thunder as he launched himself into the air, still screaming at me to slow down. I didn’t care, nor did I obey him. Kel’Ratan needed me. Mikk’s drumming hooves pounded out his name, over and over—Kel’Ratan, Kel’Ratan, Kel’Ratan.
’Twas but a short gallop, a mere mile to the thin band of forest, west of the stream where I thought we might rest. I hugged Mikk’s thick neck as pine and oak branches sought to sweep me from my saddle, thickets of scrub oak catching my bare legs. Thorns raked my skin, drawing blood, but I ignored them as I ignored the shouted voices commanding me to wait.
Breaking into a small clearing, I found them.
Kel’Ratan and Corwyn stood, swords out, shoulder to shoulder, waiting to meet the threat that thundered in from under the trees. They didn’t know if friend or foe galloped on swift hooves. Yet, their blades lowered at once the instant I broke into the open glade.
Mikk slid to a trampling halt, casting clots of turf and loose pine needles up behind his hooves. I flung myself from my saddle before his heavy legs stopped churning. I ran to not just Kel’Ratan, my kinsman. I also ran toward Corwyn, my friend.
I seized them both, my arms around their sturdy waists, burying my face somewhere between them. Their enormous hands held me close as I breathed in their masculine scents, their male odors. They were alive. Hurting, sore, still gasping in precious breaths of life, they lived.
Tears s
tung my eyes again. Thank you, my lady. Thank you for their safety. I owe you.
“Ly’Tana,” Kel’Ratan began.
Whatever he was going to say was suddenly cut off by Bar’s raucous, annoyed scream from on high.
I listened to two healthy heartbeats against my ears as Raine and Rygel reined in their mounts to either side of us. I both heard and felt them leap from their saddles. My boys loped on their heels, spreading out to circle us round, bristling, ready for trouble. Bar screeched again as he flew low overhead, his belly brushing the tallest branches.
I ignored them all, content to just breathe and hold Kel’Ratan and Corwyn, and thank all the deities there are that they both survived Ja’Teel’s evil.
I heard the horses of my boys surround me, the whining of the wolf pup, Arianne’s glad exclamation. I didn’t look up as Bar’s huge form crushed small trees and branches, pushing his way into the clearing. All I needed was to breathe in the scent of those I feared murdered. I sucked air in and out, in and out, my head spinning, my feelings crossing boundaries and out of my control.
First Kel’Ratan’s arm, then Corwyn’s, crossed my back, holding me tighter.
“She’s an emotional one, wouldn’t you say?” Corwyn commented, his tone dry.
“You’ve no idea,” Kel’Ratan breathed. I felt his lips brush my hair. “She’s a bloody nuisance.”
“I noticed that.”
I pulled away from his grip and scowled up at them both. “Oh, see how you are? I worry you both are dead and I’m a nuisance?”
Kel’Ratan’s brow quirked, his mustache bristling. “Yes.”
I reached up and patted Kel’Ratan’s bristly cheek. “When I’m queen and the one to whom you owe your allegiance, I dare you to make fun. I double-dog dare you.”
Corwyn chuckled, a sharp, quick sound before his expression smoothed over as he caught my glare. His genes jumped to attention and saluted, but Kel’Ratan’s veins bled as purple as mine.
He, of course, laughed aloud. Pulling me once more into his heavy arms, Kel’Ratan hugged me tight. “Your will, my queen.”
“Don’t worry, boys,” I murmured into Kel’Ratan’s chest. “Rygel has that devil-boy by the short hairs. Don’t you, Rygel?”
Silence greeted my words.
Horses should have moved, thereby crunching dead leaves, pine needles, and twigs under their hooves. Bits should have jingled, anxious lungs snorted, warriors either laughed or complained. Bar should have screeched his displeasure, Arianne swipe her hair from her face, Tor bitch about the lack of necessities for supper that night. I failed to hear Raine sigh, the pup whine or Rygel make a scathing comment.
Baffled, I gazed up and Kel’Ratan frowned down. His red brow lifted at the same moment my lips twisted. I thrust him away from me, hard enough to make him stagger, and wheeled about.
Rygel dropped lightly from his saddle. My boys dismounted with fluid grace and waited with reins wrapped in their fists, withdrawing should my ire fall on them rather than the one who’d earned it.
Rygel quaked in his boots. He knew very well he was in trouble.
Raine, too, slipped from Rufus’s back, the dark pup in his fist. He dropped his reins and stepped lightly toward me, his eyes cautious, even. Arianne waited with Tor, both still mounted on the grey mare, her right hand lifted toward me in supplication.
“You’ll break this spell.”
“Uh,” Rygel answered, his eyes flicking to mine briefly. “I, er, can’t.”
I stepped forward, light, on the balls of my feet. My head tilted slightly, ready to catch any nuance of Rygel’s voice. “What?”
I spoke to Rygel’s bent bright head, for he suddenly knelt, his face lowered. “I would if I could, Princess. But a magician can’t break another’s spell without first finding the signature.”
“What signature?” Raine asked.
“Every wizard has his own very unique signature wrapped into his or her spells,” Rygel explained, speaking to the grass. “A magician can’t break mine no matter how powerful he might be. It’s almost impossible to find someone’s signature, for it’s tied up within his own thinking.”
I took a single step forward. “Are you the best there is or not?”
“Princess—”
“Look at me.”
He obeyed, his aristocratic lips thinned, white at the corners. Tendrils of his yellow mane lay plastered to his neck with sweat, and his eyes filled with frustration and pain.
I leaned forward. “You said ‘almost’.”
“I did, Princess,” Rygel said, extending his hands, palms up. “I’ll try. I can’t guarantee—”
“We can’t have that bugger popping out of nowhere,” Raine rumbled, his beefy hand resting on my shoulder with incredible gentleness. “Bloody nuisance, he is.”
“Do it,” I retorted. “What do you need?”
His eyes flicked beyond me. “Some quiet, some privacy. And time. This may take a while. I’ll create a shield so Ja’Teel can’t find Corwyn while I work.”
“So be it.”
I lifted my head, seeing for the first time a decent clearing, shadowed from the sun, protected from prying eyes, a stream of clean water nearby. “Will this do?”
Rygel looked up, instantly recognizing the potential. “Yes, my queen. I think so.”
“Then get busy. The rest of us will make camp, guard you both. Get started.”
Rygel’s slender hand rose to beckon Corwyn. As Corwyn rose to obey, albeit with heavy reluctance, Raine clapped his liegeman’s shoulder in passing. His hand slid to my neck as I turned about, my hands on my hips. Irritated, I blew out a strong gust, blowing my hair from my brow.
“What now?” Raine asked, taking my hand.
I glanced over my shoulder. With Corwyn sitting uneasily at his side, Rygel extended his hands high overhead. As he brought his hands down to his sides, slowly, ceremoniously, a silvery-green luminescent screen lay between my gaze and the two men inside. Ja’Teel’s shield was invisible, until Rygel melted it, anyway. This wasn’t. I saw its silvery gleam under the light of the sun, the pair inside faintly blurry.
“I’ll have to put you in a trance,” Rygel said quietly.
“A—a what?”
“It’s like you’re asleep. You won’t feel anything, and you’ll wake as though you had just slept the night away. You’ll feel fresh, rested and quite well.”
Corwyn’s worried eyes found mine. I sent him a reassuring smile, but he didn’t get the heartening part of my message. His expression didn’t change. When Rygel’s hand touched the nape of his neck, his eyes closed and his breathing grew deep and even. He sat upright, and seemed, to me, to sleep soundly.
“We wait,” I said, answering Raine’s question. “And pray.”
“Funny. I had the same notion.”
“Great minds think alike,” I muttered, finding a small amount of humor.
Allowing him to steer me, Raine took me to a fallen tree trunk, its dead body smooth, devoid of bark, and pale from years and weather. I sat down, rubbing my hands over my arms, feeling the gooseflesh there although the sun shone bright and hot overhead. Bar sat down behind me, clicking his beak in annoyance. His tail lashed last year’s dead leaves and broken twigs.
Kel’Ratan rubbed his swollen and blackened throat, grimacing. “I reckon we should set up camp, then. We might be here a while.”
As Tor slid down from the mare’s rump, Raine gently lifted his sister and the whelp from the saddle. Setting her on her feet, he brushed her midnight hair from her face with his free hand. She gazed up at him, her glorious eyes solemn.
“Little cat,” he murmured. “Will you help Tor?”
She nodded without speaking. As Tor began to unpack saddlebags, Kel’Ratan ordered Yuri and Yuras into a watch. Rannon, Alun and the twins unsaddled the horses, setting them loose to graze and drink. Kel’Ratan set rocks for a fire ring and gathered wood, occasionally rubbing his pained throat. I should help, I thought.
“M
ind babysitting for a spell?” Raine asked, drawing my attention away from Kel’Ratan.
I brushed my hair from my face, took a deep breath, and tried a smile. “Of course not.” I held my arms out, inviting him to put the pup in them. The dark whelp mewled, a low soft sound, as I made him comfortable on my lap. Damn, he was heavy for such a young baby.
Their chores done, Left and Right sat down to either side of me, their dark eyes flicking about the small forest, never still. Tor took rounds of bread, cheese and cold roasted venison to Yuri and Yuras. Arianne filled water skins from the stream while Alun sorted food for himself and his brothers. Rannon brought cold beef and cheese to me.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
His fingers stroked my cheek for a moment. “Just having a look around,” he answered.
“I’ll go with you,” Kel’Ratan said, settling his swordbelt around his hips. “I don’t think I can eat right now.”
Watching them disappear under the trees, I absently stroked the pup’s fur. Comfortable, somnolent, with food in his belly, his faint cries vanished as he dropped into sleep. Without disturbing him too much, I lay him in a soft pile of dead leaves at my feet. Taking Rannon’s offer, I thanked him with a smile. Arianne brought me a silver hanap of cold, delicious water.
I drank the cup to its dregs, not realizing how thirsty I was. As though reading my mind, Arianne refilled it from a skin, waiting while I gulped that one down, too. She moved on to fill cups for the others, her slavish duties fulfilling her, her pale expression lighter and less worried.
Yet, the food in my hands…I wasn’t hungry. Left and Right munched their fare as though they hadn’t eaten in weeks, and my boys devoured theirs while standing, talking quietly.
“Tor, take some food and water in to Rygel and Corwyn,” I said.
He eyed the shield dubiously. “Uh, how?”
I glanced over my shoulder at the pair inside the magic screen. Like two pals, Rygel and Corwyn sat side by side, Rygel’s hand on Corwyn’s shoulder. Rygel’s eyes were shut, while Corwyn’s face remained lax, his eyes closed, sitting upright but entranced.
Catch a Wolf Page 25
