Blind Seer’s grumbling growl made quite clear without need for translation that in his opinion it was unlikely that there was another like Firekeeper anywhere. He then dropped his nose to the ground and began analyzing scents, beginning with those closest to the trail they had taken down from the plateau and radiating outwards. Firekeeper knew that he had not found any fresh spoor either magical or human, so was seeking older signs.
She said as much to the others, then went on, “What you say is wise, Kalyndra. Farborn will go above time to time to see if there are signs that many humans—you said you were attacked by many—are coming this way. The trees are so thick here, we cannot be certain he will see even from above, but when humans move fast, the birds and small creatures tend to flee. Farborn would see that.”
She turned to Wythcombe. “Can you sniff out Kabot or the thing he took from Azure Towers?”
Wythcombe ran a knobby hand along the polished shaft of his staff. “I think it would be best if I sought Kabot. That artifact makes me a touch apprehensive. Even warded as it was, it was very powerful. If, as Kalyndra has speculated, it is indeed related to the one Nalrmyna was studying, then…” He shook his head as if the physical act could clear his head of uncomfortable speculations. “Before I left Mount Ambition, I broke loose a fragment of the stone in which Kabot inscribed the spell containing his farewell message to me. I may be able to use the latent mana in the runes as a focus.”
“What can I do to help?” Ranz asked eagerly.
“Protect the others,” Wythcombe said, “but be warned. Your magic for cold and ice may be difficult to maintain in these warmer surroundings. You will not want for moisture, though.”
Kalyndra put a hand on Wythcombe’s arm. “If you wish, Wythcombe, I can channel mana for you—without using blood magic, although I admit that would be easier. As an alchemist, I had to study how the energies of various things that lack blood can be intertwined.”
Wythcombe gave her a short, respectful bow. “I would be grateful.”
Ranz shot Kalyndra an envious look that Firekeeper completely understood. Clearly, he wished he had thought to offer. Wythcombe had raised the young man’s self-esteem by asking him to protect the rest, then immediately shot him down by reminding Ranz that his abilities would likely be limited.
“Really,” Firekeeper said to Blind Seer who had drifted some distance and was now sniffing the base of a wide-trunked tree, “that old man has been a One unchallenged for too long. He has forgotten how strong wolves must be carefully led.”
Blind Seer coughed laughter. “Wythcombe is not a One. The problem is, his power is so great he is treated as such. Leave him be for now. The scent trails here confirm Kalyndrya’s account of how the plateau makes the great predators uncomfortable. There is one great cat whose regular hunting route avoids the plateau, but he pisses here regularly, seeking to claim it. I may need to range farther to seek human spoor. Can you mind the pack?”
“With Ranz and Laria? I can try. Take Farborn with you.”
Blind Seer didn’t argue that he didn’t need the help of a mouthful of bird. They’d both learned to value the wingéd folk’s aid.
Wythcombe had taken advantage of the relative openness near the base of the trail and was using the butt of his staff to make a complicated drawing in the dirt. Kalyndra was watching with interest. Ranz, in contrast, was trying not to watch.
Firekeeper swallowed a sigh. Years ago, Derian had been uncertain that he should associate with—much less befriend—the many noble-born people he had been forced into contact with. He had grown more sensible with time. Perhaps Ranz would too become sensible, although at this moment she wanted to trounce him as she had never wanted to trounce Derian.
But then I am so much wiser than that Little Two-legs I was, for all I sneered at human ways. I have called myself a One of wolves. Let me see what I can do with our two fine human pups.
“Laria? Ranz?”
Ranz looked startled at being spoken to. Laria, who had been holding Rusty’s leash and watching idly as the billy goat sampled any plant within reach, jumped. Firekeeper swallowed another sigh.
Here we are in a strange place. Kalyndra has warned us that enemies may come at any moment, and these two are caught in daydreams. Humans!
But she let none of her bemused irritation show. “Blind Seer must cast further afield to see if he can learn from which direction came those who tried to kill Kalyndra and the others not so long ago.” That got them! Hah! “I cannot watch all the directions and, until we know more, we must stand like a tethered bird right where the mountain cat is expected to strike. From this place there are many trails. I would set you to guard.”
Ranz looked puzzled. “Trails? Many? The greenery is like a wall!”
Laria tethered Rusty to a sapling that was hopefully too thick for him to chew through, then drew Volsyl. “I don’t see any either trails either. Firekeeper, remember, I grew up on an island where most of the trees were widely scattered and not very tall. You saw the forest where we found Ranz—tall trees with lots of open space beneath. This place is as strange to us as the ocean was to you.”
Firekeeper dipped her head at the justice of Laria’s reminder. “True. I will show you how to find trails. Look at the green not as a wall, but as something of parts: leaves, vines, tree trunks, these last both big and small.”
Unlike a human, she didn’t insult them by asking if they could do this. She could see by the bright interest in their eyes that they were trying. Laria was even starting to smile.
Firekeeper continued, “Now, among plants there are the fast growers, the slow growers. Trees are the slowest growers, especially in trunks and limbs. Grass is a fast grower, sometimes springing back within a few breaths. Between these are the vines, the small leafy herbs. Remember, too, that plants take advantage where there is sun, where there is rain. A trail, especially made by humans or larger animals, who may tear off tree limbs or even remove entire trees to ease their passage, may quickly fill with these little fast growers. Now, tell me, where are there trails?”
She made this last a question, a game, not a command. Ranz, in particular, was chaffing from being ordered about. She let her gaze rest on him, silently offering him the first guess, not because he was older and wiser than Laria, but precisely because he was not wiser, and was the more likely to be offended at being wrong. However, Ranz had shed his earlier pique because of her self-evident respect for his intelligence, and was trying hard. He pointed to where stood two fine grandmothers of a type of tree Firekeeper did not know, but suspected were a foundation of this hot, damp forest.
“There! Looking at it your way, they’re like pillars marking a city gate. You could ride two horses side by side through there with room to spare. Their limbs even make a sort of arch.”
Kalyndra glanced over and grinned. “Elephants, one at a time, but you have it. That way was one of the main trade roads. I used to take it home when I had holidays from school.”
“Elephants?” Ranz’s delight increased. “I’ve only seen those in pictures. Wonderful!”
“Kalyndra,” Laria cut in, “don’t tell where the other roads are. I want a guess.”
Kalyndra made a small flourish with one hand. “By all means.”
“Over there,” Laria pointed. “I think it’s the other side of the road Ranz found.”
“Correct,” Kalyndra said. “What else can you find?”
Firekeeper kept watch while Laria and Ranz worked out that what had seemed a solid wall of greenery was actually a hub from which six spokes radiated. The larger three were what Kalyndra confirmed as former trade routes, the smaller included the path up the plateau, a route that eventually led to a large lake, and another that led to a quarry.
Firekeeper knew that Kalyndra could have told them all of this from the start, since not much more than a year before this area had been her home. However, the wolf-woman also knew that Kalyndra understood precisely why Firekeeper had been making Laria and R
anz puzzle out their surroundings—and that the older woman approved.
Now that they were aware that the foliage only masked actual roads, Laria and Ranz became much more alert. Ranz spared occasional glances to where Wythcombe was working his divination, and Laria spared occasional glances for Ranz, but otherwise the two were admirably alert—at least for young humans with very little training in such matters.
Blind Seer had not yet returned when Wythcombe pushed himself laboriously to his feet, took a long drink from his flask, and pointed in the direction of the most central of the former trade routes.
“That way. Kabot’s that way. I’m sure of it.”
Kalyndra tugged at one of her ropes of hair and said, “That route leads to Glesteero, the closest town. I wonder…”
Ranz’s grey eyes lit with excitement, and he completely forgot that he was supposed to be keeping watch. “How far? Can you transport us there?”
To Firekeeper, who had caught both the scent of exhaustion in the old man’s sweat and the bite of stimulant herbs in his drink, the second question hinted at a challenge. Kalyndra frowned and started to say something, but Wythcombe waved her down.
“It’s all right, Kalyndra, because of your assistance, I’m hardly tired at all.”
And he doesn’t just mean the mana she offered him. I think I know who made him the brew in that flask.
Wythcombe continued, “Teaching moment, Ranz. I might be able to transport us closer to Kabot, but there is a reason that would be unwise. I have faith you can work it out.”
Ranz stiffened but, to his credit, he worked through the problem. Firekeeper thought she knew the answer, and suspected Laria did, too, but Ranz was muddled not only by knowing so much more about magic than they did, so having more possibilities to eliminate, but also by his desire to believe that his chosen teacher was capable of any miracle.
“Well, you would need to open a way for several people, and you wouldn’t want to be exhausted.”
“True, but there is something else, something that would apply even if we had a nearly infinite source of mana—say if we were blood mages with willing sacrifices to hand.”
Teaching moment indeed, Firekeeper thought with admiration. Wythcombe has not completely forgotten how very much Ranz is attracted to blood magic.
Ranz crossed his arms and tapped his index finger against his cheekbone. “Wait! I think I have it. It’s the spell’s anchor, isn’t it? You have found Kabot but, since he’s the only thing you know about our destination, you would need to anchor the spell to him. It’s too much to expect that a highly talented sorcerer like him wouldn’t notice the contact.”
“Very good,” Wythcombe said. He turned to Firekeeper. “Can you let Blind Seer know which way we are going? I think we should start as soon as possible. Kalyndra, you said that this route leads to the closest town. Is that where the man you mentioned—Hohdoymin—had his base?”
Kalyndra shook her head. “No. He was from another village, closer to the lake, but I have no idea how far his influence may have spread.”
“We’ll be careful, then,” Wythcombe said, “but maybe we’ll be lucky and, if anyone is coming to check Nalrmyna, we’ll be able to avoid them.”
Avoid, yes, Firekeeper thought, but not avoid being tracked, not with you heavy-feet humans.
Since Firekeeper felt that they should move in Kabot’s direction before the sorcerer got wind of them and vanished again, she didn’t feel like wasting time explaining this. She would simply stay alert.
“I will howl,” she said simply, and followed words with action before anyone could start arguing that this was a bad idea. The jungle around them fell momentarily still as the high notes of a wolf’s hunting call cut through the steamy air, then almost immediately resumed as the local wildlife concluded that whatever the noise was, it wasn’t the call of any danger they knew. Firekeeper found this interesting. Although she had yet to meet any, she had heard tales of wolves less heavy of coat than her people that actually liked living in such places.
Maybe Blind Seer can meet one of these and learn how to take that shape, she mused as she padded over to inspect their prospective route.
“Firekeeper,” Laria said hesitantly. “Blind Seer didn’t answer. Are you sure he’s not in trouble?”
Firekeeper grinned at her. “One howl is enough. He would not make noise for no reason. That is why I am sure he is fine. He would call if in a trap. Anything that can take him and Farborn both…” She shrugged to show how unlikely that would be. She didn’t bother to explain that if something dangerous enough to harm Blind Seer was out there in the tangled green, she couldn’t abandon these weaker members of her pack even to seek Blind Seer. “Our scent will be enough for him to find us. Let us move along quickfoot before Wythcombe decides to lead.”
Wythcombe had done nothing so foolish. He had untied Rusty and led the protesting goat over to join them. “Firekeeper, shall you and Kalyndra take point? She knows something of the local plants and animals, and can advise you. The rest of us will come after, at whatever distance you advise.”
“Fine,” Firekeeper said, knowing it was anything but, but also aware that there were few choices. Laria would remember to watch their back trail. Until Blind Seer and Farborn rejoined them, that was as much as she could hope for. “We will use the trade road.”
With no further discussion, Firekeeper parted the foliage and led the way. A few long paces from the clearing at the base of the plateau where the sunlight could not penetrate as easily, the former road was much easier to find. An elephant might not pass without crushing and bruising the vegetation, but five humans and a goat managed well enough. Before long, the trail they followed intersected another, much more frequently used one. After that intersection, their own road also showed more evidence of use.
Without being asked, Kalyndra said, “We’re still a fair distance from Glesteero, but close enough that we should take care. From this point on, we’ll find more clearings and might encounter woodcutters, hunters, or foragers.”
Firekeeper nodded and was about to move on when Blind Seer soundlessly melted from a clump of broad-leafed shrubs. Her first impulse to throw her arms around him and hug him close to her was instantly halted when she saw that his hackles were up.
“Ask Kalyndra what sort of hunters move in great packs of maybe some fifty, armed with long spears, clubs, and swords. I think their prey might well be us.”
“Kabot!” Tension in Uaid’s voice alerted Kabot that this was not the first time Uaid had tried to get his attention.
Reluctantly, Kabot drew his thoughts from the arcane intricacies he had been devising in anticipation of awakening Palvalkay. Even before he opened his eyes, he was aware of the rhythmic clanging of a distant bell. They’d heard the bell before, signaling daily gatherings, but this peal was different: strident and urgent.
“What?” Kabot hissed, remembering that this was not the place to shout, no matter how irritated he felt.
In reply, Uaid pointed. Based on their previous days of observation, at midday the village should be quietly busy. Now it stirred like a nest of ants that had discovered a pool of spilled honey. Fieldworkers were streaming in from their labors. More were running in from the timber-cutting operation. Kabot noticed that everyone responding to the bell was strong and athletic. It didn’t take a great leap of imagination to deduce that the militia was being called up.
“Have they sent out scouts?” Kabot asked.
Uaid shook his head, not in negation, but rather in confusion. “Daylily’s climbed to where she can get a better look.”
By the time Daylily returned, very few new arrivals were coming to the village and the gates had been closed.
“I found a place where I could see the temple square better, near where we saw them take the palanquin. The man who walked in front of the palanquin is in charge; he’s very impressively garbed and giving orders. The militia are getting their weapons, then mustering in the temple square.”
> “Looks as if they’re preparing an armed excursion,” Uaid said.
Kabot nodded. “The question is, are they after us or is this unrelated?”
“Could this have something to do with Wythcombe?” Daylily suggested. “We’ve been perched here for several days. The only ones to take notice of us have been monkeys and birds. The Voice warned us of Wythcombe’s arrival a short while ago, then this… I think we’d be unwise to rule out a connection.”
“Good point!” Kabot replied, his mind racing. “Whatever the reason, this will work to our advantage. If the militia departs and leave Teyvalkay behind, this may be our chance to seize it. If they bring Teyvalkay out, we can follow them and make our move—possibly when they’re busy with whatever they’re after.”
“If we follow, we won’t have our choice of terrain,” Uaid mused, “but you’re right, we can’t risk losing sight of Teyvalkay.”
When the militia departed the village and headed in their general direction, Kabot was astonished to realize that his main reaction was relief. During the time that it had taken for the villagers to assemble, arm themselves, set up their home defenses, and actually depart, his mind had swirled with speculation. What would they do if the villagers carried Teyvalkay off in another direction? What if they took boats on the river? What if they stayed in the village, highly armed and on alert?
The militia wasn’t huge: maybe fifty men and women, all muscular and in fine condition. Most were armed with long spears, machete-like swords or elegant maces, and full-body shields. Many carried one or more short throwing spears. Body armor was light to nonexistent, probably a concession to the warm climate. As soon as the militia was clear of the town, Kabot closed his eyes and released the spell he’d prepared to let him detect Teyvalkay. He sagged in relief when he saw it was with the departing group. Not surprisingly, it was being carried by the same man who had coordinated the muster. He marched in the center of the band, flanked front and back, as well as on either side, by warriors who wore helmets, gorgets, light back and breast protection, and greaves.
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