Raine’s weight brought Tashira to a sliding halt. The rest of us galloped on a few lengths before reining in and trotting back. With Kel’Ratan at my elbow, I reined Mikk beside him. My boys ringed us round, their bows in their hands with arrows nocked facing outward. Bar backwinged mightily, bending the grass and flowers to bowing, and sending dead leaves flying. He settled to earth and folded his wings across his back. He hissed at me.
“I know,” I said harshly. “I heard you.”
“I get the distinct feeling we’re being herded,” Raine said grimly.
“Me too,” said Rygel.
“Me three,” echoed Tashira. “Although I’ve never been herded before.”
“What’s to our east?”
Kel’Ratan and I exchanged worried glances. “I have no idea,” I said slowly. “Maybe the Soare?”
“I don’t think so,” Rygel replied, frowning. “It may be you’re right, but I’ve no clue. I’m not very familiar with this part of the Federation.”
“In order to get troops around us,” Kel’Ratan grated. “They have to know exactly where we are. And have known it for some time.”
“But how?”
“It doesn’t matter. They know.”
“They’ve been one step ahead of us all the time,” Raine said slowly, grimly, looking each of us in the eye. “Brutal predicted every bloody step we took before we even thought about taking it.”
“Somehow,” I said slowly, thinking hard. “The Tongu and Tenzin are telling them. Informing Brutal on our whereabouts.”
“But how? It’s not like they’re tracking us. We’re moving far too fast for dogs and men on foot to keep up.”
“Yet, they are,” Raine replied quietly, his chin raised, his grey eyes half-closed. “It’s the Tongu. They find us, they tell Brutal, who sends in his cavalry.”
“Then what do we do?” Kel’Ratan demanded.
“Do the unexpected,” Rygel said quickly. “Be unpredictable. Do the very last thing he’d think we’d do.”
“Rather difficult when they have a very powerful means of tracking us,” I said, exchanging worried glances with Kel’Ratan.
“If he’s herding us east,” Raine said, jerking his head back the way we had just come. “We turn and head south.”
“Well, that’s certainly surprising,” Kel’Ratan agreed. “What about the troops?”
“We could hide in the vale,” Tashira offered. “He won’t find us there and we can wait him out.”
“No,” Raine said, leaning forward to rub his silky black ears. “I won’t risk it. I will not bring Brutal down upon your people.”
“We certainly don’t want him even knowing you exist,” I said. “He’ll stop at nothing to enslave all of you.”
“Who is this Brutal fellow and why does he want you so badly?” Shardon asked.
“He’s the High King of the Khalidian Federation,” Raine answered.
“And he wants nothing more than my hand in marriage,” I continued with feigned brightness.
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Shardon said.
“Even though you’re Raine’s mate,” Tashira added.
“He doesn’t want me,” I went on. “He wants my country, Kel’Halla. He also wants Raine’s kingdom of Connacht. After our marriage, he intends to kill me, and inherit my crown. He plans to break Raine’s mind, force him to lead his armies to conquer Connacht. Then he’ll marry Arianne to cement his claim to her land.”
“That’s different, then,” Tashira said.
“Our people came from Kel’Halla originally,” Shardon said. “It’s our ancestral home. We certainly don’t want brutal buggers overrunning it. Or harming you, for that matter.”
“We’re with you,” Tashira said, his tone suddenly fierce. “To the bloody end.”
Pride filled my heart and Raine’s tight expression. He stroked Tashira’s heavy neck. “What did I do to deserve you?” he murmured.
“No idea,” Tashira answered. “But I’m sure it was something good.”
“You wanted adventure,” Shardon said. “Looks like you’ve just put your big feet into it.”
“I wish I could remember saying that.”
“At the time, you couldn’t even remember your own name.”
Not very far in the distance, wolves howled. These weren’t just in the heads of the wolf people, I observed. Everyone heard them, including Shardon and Tashira. Bar rose to his feet, his wings half-furled. He glanced at me, then his eagle eyes were caught by something to my right. His predatory eyes fastened on it.
“Now what—” Shardon began.
Wolves broke out from the cover of the rocks and loped eastward. Loping in a large pack of maybe fifty plus, they paid us no mind at all. Like their brethren, they were huge wolves, most bigger than yearling bulls. Perhaps they were even the same wolves who saved us before.
“What—”
Kel’Ratan’s confused voice took my attention from those wolves to the second, bigger, group that crossed very close in front of us and galloped east. None glanced our way. I got the vague feeling they were on a mission. Yet more wolves followed on the heels of the first packs, a furry grey, silver, tan and brown river that flowed steadily up the hills and vanished. While none stopped to howl, I still heard the steady howling close by. Almost as if guiding them, telling them where to go.
“I can translate—” Tashira began.
Bone-chilling cold hit my body. I gasped. Confusion roiled through my brain, but I recognized that sensation. ’Twas the same horrid cold I felt when Rygel changed me into a bird. Magic struck my body.
I tumbled headfirst into the grass, the jolt driving my breath from my lungs. Stones and grass filled my eyes, I tasted dirt and horse manure, larger rocks dug into my breasts and ribs. My hands, where were my hands? There they were. I used them to push myself up—
Bodies slammed me back to earth. The little air I managed to get into my lungs in the last half second departed faster than its predecessor. Muscled male bodies, stronger and heavier than I, held me, pinned me down.
Tongu, I thought, my mind screeching in panic. One by one my arms were forced behind my back and tied with thick rope.
Around me, I heard heavy grunting, curses, the sounds of flesh striking flesh. A few words struck my ears. “Hit him, dammit.” “No, you stupid—” “Knock his bloody head off.” More punches, the rattle of chains. “Tie this bugger up tight.”
I don’t smell them, I thought, haphazard. The Tongu smelled like evil and piss. These smelled like ordinary men, of sweat and leather and horses. The Tongu spoke through their maimed throats in sharp hisses. I heard curses aplenty, but none of them hissed. So who were they? How did they find me? Where were the others?
The hands dragged me up, standing me on my feet. I spat grass and dirt from my mouth, tossing my thick hair from my eyes with a jerk of my head.
Brutal stood a mere rod away, his crown bright under the sunlight. His brown eyes danced with jovial glee; he smiled with benign humor and high good fellowship.
“Hello,” he said.
I swallowed, hard.
Ja’Teel stood beside him, still draped dramatically in all black. The scorpion tattoo on his cheekbone accented his pale features. His harelip, faint the last time I saw him up close, now stood out sharp and clear. He seriously needs a tan, I thought, my brain malfunctioning.
Tenzin stood just behind Brutal’s right shoulder, watching me with an inscrutable expression. Shirel sat contentedly at heel, the light chain about her black throat gleaming under the sun. Like Bar’s when happy, her tail flicked lazily back and forth, stirring the grass.
Brutal, still so thin I swear I saw through him, wore his ordinary clerkly tan tunic and black cloak, pale green breeches and black boots. His hair was longer than the day we rode together and talked of marriage. It fell in thin straggles to his shoulders. His sire’s heavy jeweled crown seemed overly large on his round head. Get over yourself already, I thought, and almost giggled.
“Welcome back, my love,” he gushed.
The madness that sparked deep in his dead eyes hadn’t changed, however. I recognized the look. The look in his eyes just before he commanded a piebald horse skinned and burned alive.
Around and behind the High King arrayed a unit of his royal Sins. Their dark eyes under their turbans watched me with little emotion. Not that one might see any from them, with their white scarves covering their faces. The royal emblem of the White Lion blazoned their tunics, their white trousers were stuffed into black boots, and their right hands gripped spears.
Flanking them were more troopers in purple and gold, along with a half-dozen or so of their commanders. I recognized Sangar, three from my left. In ordered ranks behind them, a full company of cavalry sat their horses, banners waving the royal White Lion emblem streamed in the light breeze above them.
So. Brutal’s army. I suspected that if I glanced around, I’d see an entire battalion of royal troops.
“My wizard has finally proved his usefulness,” Brutal said.
To Brutal’s right, Ja’Teel flushed.
A new struggle to my left dragged my attention from Brutal. Royal soldiers in purple and gold dragged Raine to his feet, much as they had me. He was semi-conscious, his hair hanging down over his face. Blood oozed from several cuts on his face and head. They took no chances with an ex-gladiator of his high caliber. Chains bound not only his hands behind his back, but around his huge chest and shoulders. Leather thongs or ropes he could break, and had done so. Chains, never.
“I can’t imagine why he didn’t think of this earlier,” Brutal went on in a conversational fashion, with a sidelong look at Ja’Teel. “He’d have saved me a great deal of time and trouble.”
Ja’Teel didn’t flush, this time. His pale face waxed even whiter, if possible. “Your Majesty, I explained how difficult it is to pull three people from—”
Brutal raised his right hand to a position in front of Ja’Teel’s nose and froze it there, his dead eyes on mine. Ja’Teel choked, almost strangling, in his desperate need to shut his mouth. I think he bit his tongue in the process.
“He transported you away from your little pack,” Brutal went on. “All three of you.”
What? Three? I saw Raine. Who—
My neck creaked as I turned my head. To my right, halfway behind me, I found Arianne. Curtained in her hair, she stood small and defenseless, also surrounded by royal troops. They hadn’t tied her hands, nor bound her in any way. I thought I saw the gleam in her eyes behind her midnight hair, but I couldn’t be certain.
“What?” Brutal grinned. “Nothing to say?”
“What do you want?” I asked. “You expect me to beg?”
“Oh, would you?”
“Sorry,” I murmured. “I left my humility in my saddlebags.”
I glanced sidelong at Raine. He barely stood under his own power, his guard in purple and gold held him up with their hands under his arms and shoulders. Of course, they’d also take him down should he show any fight.
“Pity,” Brutal sighed. “I might have showed you mercy.”
“Oh, please,” I said. “Don’t waste my time.”
Brutal actually laughed. “Oh, my. Dear girl, I sincerely wish things could have been different between you and I. You are a treasure, indeed.”
“Sure,” I replied. “If you hadn’t been born a lunatic, the world would be at our fingertips.”
“Exactly.” Brutal’s finger thrust toward the blue sky above in an exclamation point, his grin blossoming. “But my lunacy will bring the world to my feet.”
“Delusions of grandeur,” I muttered.
“Ly’Tana,” he chided gently. “I’m not delusional. I’ll rule the world one day. Had you felt differently, you’d have shared it with me, as my queen.”
“Right,” I answered sardonically. “Had I been willing to check my honor and my moral code at the door.”
“Precisely! See what we could have been?” He waved his arms about. “You and I, we’re above all that. We’re above even the gods themselves.”
“I can’t see the gods buying into that one, sorry.”
Close by, wolves howled. Arianne’s head tilted slightly, as though listening.
“Oh, those pesky wolves won’t save you this time,” Brutal said kindly. “Ja’Teel, at my insistence, provided a magical barricade around this entire area. They cannot enter. Most of my troops are here, within its boundaries. I have two entire cohorts outside, hunting down any wolf they see. I did promise them they could keep the hides, of course.”
He slapped the side of his head, as though just remembering something. “Oh, by the by,” he said lightly. “I posted a bounty on wolves. All wolves, within the bounds of Khalid. A silver half-crown for every wolf ear they bring me.”
Brutal chuckled, shaking his head. “Word spread so fast, I can’t believe it. I reckon I’m not the only one who thinks of wolves as pests. Hunters are setting wolf traps all over Khalid.”
“They won’t kill any.”
My head wasn’t alone in swiveling, surprised, toward Arianne. Brutal’s face swung toward her, his brow furrowing in irritation at her obvious rude interruption. Ja’Teel scowled. Tenzin, of all of them, concealed a tiny smile behind the fingers he raised to his lips. As he stood outside Brutal’s line of sight, and at Ja’Teel’s back, only I witnessed it. His amused eyes slid my way. Shirel watched Arianne with sharp interest.
“Of course they will, my dear,” Brutal replied, returning his attention once more to me. His mouth opened to continue our chat.
“No,” she said, her voice soft. “The wolves are too smart. Your hunters will trap only themselves.”
“Wolves are by far the stupidest creatures living,” Ja’Teel snapped. “They deserve to die. The world will be a better place without them.”
From beneath the shelter of her midnight hair, Arianne extended her arm. Her hand, no larger than a child’s, lifted slowly and hung in mid-air. She pointed a tiny finger at Ja’Teel. As though she marked him. As though she saw right into his soul.
“You will die under the fangs of a wolf.”
Her voice spoke softly, without intonation and with such conviction a chill raced down my spine. Her body, hidden behind her wealth of screening hair, made her appear a bodiless entity, a spirit brought to earth, an oracle from the gods. Ja’Teel’s eyes widened, briefly and perhaps without his consent, with fear.
“And with your death shall new life begin. A new life and a new hope.”
Her hand retreated behind her hair. She fell silent.
No few of her royal guards made the sign against evil. In shuffling their feet, they widened the space around her without making it look as though they had retreated. Brutal flapped his hand, irritated, dismissing her, and focused his attention on me. Ja’Teel’s courage returned with a sneer tossed in her direction.
“Witch,” he muttered.
She probably was, I thought. That girl knew things no earthly human should know. Or had any business knowing. I’d no doubt at all she just accurately foretold Ja’Teel’s fate.
Brutal gestured airily above us. “See that?”
A vague greenish colored netting spread between me and the blue sky. It muted the sunlight, casting all into not exactly shadows, but a strange half-twilight. I turned my head, this way and that. I failed to see its end.
“Ja’Teel created that, too,” Brutal explained. “Your griffin cannot possibly see through it. Perfect camouflage.” Brutal tittered, his slender hand over his thin lips. “Even if that flying puss knew where to look, he’ll never see you.”
My heart, already in my boots, sank further. There was truly no hope for us, then. We ran out of miracles, I reckoned. Luck as well. Bar wouldn’t wing in out of nowhere and slaughter Brutal where he stood. No wolves to appear from the hills and hamstring horses and men. Raine could never break his bonds and save me from rape. Not this time.
I eyed him from the candle of my eye, with
out turning my head. He came out of his daze slightly. His face lifted, but his eyes still fell to half-mast. Blood dried on his cheek, turning a color combination of black and dark red. His jaw looked loose and slack, indicating to me he was still only a quarter conscious. His left eye swelled shut.
“Even now,” Brutal went on, confident, gleeful. “Your band is dead, your griffin lost, and Rygel—”
“Dead,” Ja’Teel hissed.
Brutal watched him with amusement. “Ja’Teel is angry he didn’t kill Rygel himself,” he confided, inclining his body toward me as though imparting a secret. “I so wanted to give him the satisfaction, but I’ll give him you instead.”
Oddly, Arianne made no movement, no sound, no indication the pronouncement of Rygel’s death affected her. She loved him. She had fretted over him before. Why not now?
Because she knew they lied.
Shirel finally moved. Her golden eyes never left Arianne’s darkly draped form from the moment we, er, arrived. Rising to her feet, she daintily padded on silent feline paws toward Raine’s tiny sister. My breath caught. I witnessed firsthand how quickly and easily she could kill a man. Struggling against my ropes, I sought to reach my sword. To cut her down before she could kill that defenseless child.
The amusement dropped from Tenzin. “Shirel,” he hissed, snapping his fingers.
Shirel hesitated at his command, a half-heartbeat, before, catlike, choosing to ignore him.
Now Brutal and Ja’Teel also saw the danger. Should Arianne die, Brutal had no marriage to Connacht. The connection he desperately needed now might be severed at the teeth and claws of his ally’s pet panther.
Catch a Wolf Page 44
