Raven Thrall

by J Elizabeth Vincent

  “Thank you, Ruby,” she responded, putting her arms around the wolf. Ruby stiffened, and Mariah let go. “Sorry.”

  Mariah quickly located Shira’s waterskin and the little stash of bandages she had been carrying. She used one to clean Shira’s hands and another to clean and redress the wound from Loleon. “There. All done.” She patted Shira’s hands before putting away the supplies, grateful that the woman’s brown trousers were hiding the blood that had been transferred to her lap. “You’ll need to change your tunic, though.” There were brown splatters all over her chest.

  For the first time since Mariah had asked her if she was okay, Shira moved, gathering up Mariah’s hands in her own. “You’re using both hands. How …?”

  Mariah vaguely remembered shrugging off her sling so she could jump onto Cam’s back and get him away from Shira. Had it hurt? She couldn’t remember. But there was no pain now. It hadn’t hurt since … since the temple, when Daire Denholm had touched her. The spot on her arm where the wolf had bitten her didn’t hurt either, but she was not about to uncover it and check. Not now.

  She squeezed her friend’s hands.

  “Looks like I heal fast. Like my friend Gwyn. My shoulder felt better earlier, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Listen, Shira. Do you think you can change and then go find Xae?”

  “But …” Her gaze strayed toward Cam’s body.

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  Ruby woofed again, bumping Mariah’s leg.

  “We’ll take care of it.”

  “I don’t think Xae’ll want to talk to me,” Shira murmured.

  “Don’t worry. He’s just in shock. He saw what happened. He knows you didn’t have a choice. We all do.” Mariah’s words were true enough, but it didn’t keep her from having to swallow bile as she thought of it. She forced a smile for Shira’s sake.

  CHAPTER 25

  EVASIONS & ARRANGEMENTS

  Two hours later, sunset imminent on the western horizon, Mariah and Ruby neared the road once again. They were both covered in dirt, and Mariah’s forehead was slick with sweat. Ruby had been quick and efficient in digging a hole for Cam, but Mariah had moved his body and helped to cover it.

  Ruby hadn’t changed once, and Mariah hadn’t asked her to. She seemed to be more comfortable in wolf form, and Mariah was happy not to have to talk to anyone, not now. She feared that if she talked too much, she might break down like Shira had.

  When they reached the edge of the trees, they found Xae and Shira waiting, sitting together in the shadows, silent but holding hands. A weight lifted off Mariah, knowing she had been right about the boy.

  “I can’t believe you’re better,” he murmured when she came into sight. “Maybe just in time. We’ve got to get as far from here as fast as we can. People will be looking for him.”

  Mariah nodded.

  “I can’t fly, but I can run once we’re not in the open,” Shira said. “If we cut west back to Laikos, we can head toward Glenley under cover of the trees. The guard won’t follow us there.”

  Ruby whimpered.

  “You don’t want to go back to Laikos?” Mariah asked.

  The wolf just whined again, giving no clear answer.

  “I don’t see where we have much choice. Xae’s right. We also had some trouble in the mountains with the royal guard. It’s not safe for us to stay in the open anymore.”

  Ruby laid down, her head on her paws, looking away from Mariah.

  Xae rummaged around in the packs and put the leftover pasties in front of Ruby. She quickly went to work on them, and as she did so, the boy handed Mariah her father’s knife, hilt first.

  She cleaned the dirt off it carefully with the edge of her already filthy tunic and slipped it back into its sheath. It looked like they had a few miles in the open to cover before they reached the edge of Laikos. “We’ll fly low if we have to and keep circling back to stay with you and provide a distraction if anyone spots you before you reach the trees. Give me my pack, Xae, I can carry it now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She rolled her shoulder. The muscles were tight, but they were working, and there was still no pain. “See? C’mon, kid, we need to get going.”

  He handed over her full pack, and she put it on, adjusting the straps so that it sat snugly against her back.

  Mariah’s body itched with the need to transform. As soon as the knowledge had hit her that she was healed enough to fly, she practically ached with it. She expected to see feathers pop out of her skin at any moment.

  Ruby finished eating and rose, taking a spot next to Shira.

  “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll wait to change.” Shira was looking at her hands.

  “All right. I’ll walk with you. Ruby, Xae, you scout ahead.” Transforming would have to wait.

  After hesitating for a moment, Xae changed and took off, the wolf loping along behind him.

  Mariah touched her knife one more time, glad to have it back in its place.

  After checking that the road was clear, she touched Shira’s arm. “Let’s go.”

  They ran across the stone road and then jogged along the edge of a fenced pasture to the northeast. In the distance, the dark line of the forest stood against the darker, more distant peaks of the Highlands. When they passed beyond the farm, they darted through a field dotted with shrubs and trees much like the one they had gone through when they came out of Laikos that morning. Had it really been less than a single day?

  Mariah took a deep breath, trying to overcome the anxiety she felt on entering that dark place again. She reminded herself that Loleon and his pack lived farther south, and they likely wouldn’t encounter them again until they found Faylan. Was there more than one pack in Laikos? Did they communicate with other packs? Would someone be waiting for them? She shook her head and refused to let that line of thought continue. At least they had Ruby. Maybe she would be able to tell them more at some point.

  Mariah and Shira ran on in silence and didn’t talk again until they were a good hundred feet within the borders of Laikos and found Xae and Ruby waiting, still in their animal forms. The light had died long before, and the forest felt like it was pressing in around her. The nearly full moon started to peek above the trees, and Mariah found a strange comfort in its light.

  She and Shira took a few minutes to catch their breath before speaking.

  “No one will expect anyone sane to come in here, I hope,” Shira said, her eyes darting from side to side.

  Mariah found that she was just as watchful. She didn’t want to be the victim of an ambush by the natives of the forest. She didn’t trust the protection they had been promised, not after their last experience and Ruby’s reluctance to return to her own home territory. Mariah didn’t see any wolves other than Ruby, but that didn’t keep her from feeling like she was being watched.

  “There is a lake inside these woods close to the north end,” Shira said. “I don’t know its name, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s huge, fed by a stream from the mountains. You won’t be able to miss it. It’s close enough to Glenley. If we get separated, let’s meet there, to the east, where the stream meets the lake.”

  There was something in Shira’s eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Mariah asked.

  The other woman didn’t meet her gaze. She just kept checking the trees as she responded. “Hey, it’s okay. Let’s just get moving.”

  “All right, but you two stay together,” she said, gesturing to Ruby.

  Shira nodded and took a deep breath. She seemed to shudder as the bear took her.

  “See you soon.” Mariah willed the hawk to her.

  In the short time she had been able to fully transform, it had never come so easily. Then again, she had never wanted it so bad, had never missed flying so much.

  As she lifted into the air, she realized that not one of them had suggested that they make camp.

  * * *

  They traveled
all night and much of the next day on wings and four feet, taking breaks for an hour or two here or there to get some sleep, one always remaining awake to keep watch. No one wanted to take the chance that they would be spotted by humans or draw the attention of the local lupine population. By the time they reached the southern edge of the lake, exhaustion had seeped into every fiber of Mariah’s being, and she had no trouble sleeping as Xae and Ruby set up to take the first watch.

  After a few hours, Xae woke Mariah when the waning moon was high over the trees. Only small rays of its light made it to the forest floor. When Mariah’s eyes were fully open and she met his, Xae put a finger to his lips and pointed upward. A shadow fell across the moon, and Mariah studied it. She started to get up, but Xae, sitting beside her, motioned for her to stay down. Ruby’s wolf was lying next to him, her eyes to the sky.

  Mariah couldn’t get a good look at whatever was making the shadow, so she waited, head down, trying not to yawn. Long moments passed before Xae touched her shoulder and nodded. Whatever it was seemed to be gone.

  “What was that?” she asked him quietly.

  “Probably nothing,” he said. “But I don’t know, something about it felt off.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “It was an owl, a big one. It started circling the area a while ago. I wanted you to see it.”

  She nodded. “It was probably just hunting. Get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye out for it.”

  Mariah did not spot the owl again, but Shira did on her watch. She told them that it flew over several times in an expanding circle just before dawn.

  Later, in the full light of day, Mariah said, “We may have just stumbled into its territory. It’s probably good I wasn’t in hawk form. Hawks and owls aren’t exactly friends.” She had seen that firsthand on Mount Edana.

  Xae shook his head. His lips were drawn together in a thin line. “We need to be careful. I don’t think it was just an owl.”

  The women both looked at him.

  “Okay. What do you think we should do?” Mariah asked him.

  “If that bird that we saw isn’t a bird, if it’s a … if it’s working for someone else, it will be looking for us as humans or it will be looking for animals acting out of the ordinary.”

  Mariah caught his line of thinking. “Of course, we have to act like our counterparts, not as humans in animal form.”

  “What does that mean?” Shira asked.

  “Two birds, a bear, and a wolf don’t normally travel together for one thing,” Xae said. “Especially a raven and a hawk.”

  “You want us to split up?” The idea did not suit Mariah at all.

  Sitting on the ground, Xae pulled out the map and spread it out.

  “Shira, where are we exactly?” While Laikos was on the map as a large gathering of stick-figure trees, there was no sign of the lake.

  Settling down next to him while Mariah did the same, Shira put her finger on the map at a spot in the forest south and slightly to the east of the capital city. “We’re only a few hours at a walking pace from Glenley. Once we’re out of the trees, you’ll be able to see the city walls.”

  “We need to find that drudge camp, right? It’s got to be somewhere around here.” Xae drew a circle with his finger around an area north of the city. “Mari, you could take the eastern section, and I could take the western section. We could scout the area, look for signs of the girls, my mother, and Ruby’s Faylan, and meet back later.”

  Mariah looked at Ruby. For a change, she was in human form, sitting silently and watching them.

  “Ruby, I am not sure where else your kin could be. If … if Cam was right, they would have taken him either to Glenley’s dungeons or to these camps.”

  “Do what you can,” she said. “Rescue your girls. I will help. If Faylan is close, I will smell him.”

  She didn’t seem concerned about what would happen if they didn’t find him, but Mariah noticed that Shira was rubbing her arm over the spot where Loleon had bitten her.

  Shuddering a little, Shira turned her attention back to the map. She studied it for a moment and then tapped a finger on the city. “I’ll go into the city like I normally do and visit the spice district. Pick up a few things to take home. I’ll keep my head down, listen while I do, and see what I learn.”

  “What if someone recognizes you?”

  Shira and Xae both looked at her. Shira smiled. “You’ve never been to the big city, have you, lady? I’ll be just another face in the crowd, especially in the market. We don’t know that word from the guard has spread this far north already or even that it will. How important can one Ceo San be when the king has a small horde of them in his army? And if they did send someone after us, they are looking for three people. Besides, Ruby will be with me.” Mariah was glad to see a little of Shira’s spirit returning.

  The young woman nodded in silent agreement.

  “Now, you!” The innkeepers’ daughter turned her face to Xae, and her smile disappeared. “We know how much you love those girls, but you have got to promise that if you spot that camp, you won’t go in alone. You have to come back first, so we can all go in together. We want to help, but you’re going to make that a lot harder if you go and get yourself captured, too. Remember, the three of us”—she made a grand circling motion that included herself, Ruby, and Mariah—”are the ones with the teeth and claws.”

  “I have claws,” he muttered. He paused before sighing deeply. “You’re right. I promise I’ll wait for you.”

  “Shira, I’ve been thinking,” Mariah said. “Especially after yesterday. You’ve been to the city before. People know you. They know about the inn, about your parents. You still have to live here when this is all over.”

  Xae spoke almost on top of her. “You don’t have to risk yourself … again. They’re not your family. Me and Mariah and the girls, we can escape back to Cillian when this is all over, and Ruby can go back to Laikos.”

  Ruby stared at him, and she didn’t look happy. Shira, on the other hand, shook her head. “I knew what I was getting into, and I know my parents would want me to do the right thing. Don’t you go worrying about me, folks. I’m in this with you. All the way.”

  “If you’re sure,” Mariah said.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Thank you.” Xae embraced Shira and held onto her for several seconds. Mariah looked away, knowing that Shira probably needed a bit of comfort after yesterday.

  But after a moment, Shira said in a muffled voice, “Come on, birdbrain, enough,” and pushed him away without any rancor.

  They spent a few minutes talking with Ruby, getting better descriptions of Faylan and his wolf, in case they happened to spot him. He was a man of about sixty with gray eyes. He was actually the brother of Loleon and Ruby’s uncle. That made Loleon Ruby’s father. It surprised Mariah that she hadn’t brought it up before now. Ruby quickly clarified that Ember was not her mother but had become her father’s mate after her mother was killed. She didn’t seem to care whether they found Faylan or not. She spoke of it all very dispassionately and with little patience, so Mariah didn’t push.

  “Where should we meet?” Mariah asked. “If that owl saw us and is what Xae thinks he is, he’ll be back, maybe with help.”

  “Luckily, Trappers can’t fly too,” Shira said. “It’s farther away, but let’s meet at the mouth of the stream that flows into the lake like we said we would if we got separated yesterday. It’s to the northeast of here. Just follow the edge of the lake. If you get back before we do, just wait there. We’ll find you.”

  Mariah didn’t like the uncertainty of the plan, but she didn’t have a better idea. She spent several more moments over the map, deciding on her own course before handing it back to Xae. She would fly north first and come in at a wide angle over the farms to the northeast of the city, where there were also forests that could give her cover. With a nod to the others, she called the hawk and changed.

 
; CHAPTER 26

  HEED THE DRAGON

  Mariah cried out to Xae in acknowledgment as she flew away from him and headed north. Below her, the figures of the two women quickly disappeared into the trees. They would be entering the city on two feet.

  At first, all that she passed were the dark green trees of Laikos, but after only ten minutes, the forest became thin and scraggly, wild fields replacing it. The grasses were bright green and lush and dotted with small trees and boulders. Even those were soon replaced by neat, orderly fields, where crops midway through their growing season in different shades of jade and gold were visible. Mariah climbed as high as she could but still see the outlines of the now tiny houses and sheds below.

  As Shira had predicted, as soon as she was beyond the forest, Mariah spotted the city walls. She couldn’t have missed them. Seeing Kannuk’s fortifications hadn’t prepared her. They had seemed awe-inspiring at the time, three men high and seemingly impenetrable. But if she had been in human form, her mouth would have hung open at the sight of Glenley, even from miles away.

  Mariah was sure a hundred men could have stood on each other’s shoulders and still not reached the top of the vast curved wall surrounding the capital. It was lighter and smoother than the wall around Kannuk. The sunlight reflecting off it made it appear nearly white, but there were glints of gold as well. Limestone, she guessed.

  A moat as wide as a small river separated the city from the surrounding farms, and tributaries led out from the moat in a network around the city to irrigate the fields. Mariah wondered what large body of water fed the moat itself.

  Rothgar was well protected.

  I could still fly over those walls. He couldn’t hold me. But would soldiers be stationed along the fortifications and crenellations that dotted the top of the great barrier? Soldiers with bows and arrows who could take her out of the sky with a single shot and send her plummeting to the ground? She hoped she would never have to find out for certain.