The Way to Freedom: The Complete Season Two (Books 6-10) (The Way to Freedom Collection Book 2)

by H. M. Clarke

  She awoke to Hauga’s hand on her shoulder.

  ‘Did I fall asleep?’ Dearen asked as she yawned.

  ‘Yes, you’ve had more sleep than I’ve had. And knowing your belly, it will be growling for something to eat shortly.’

  As if on cue, Dearen’s stomach began to rumble. She gave the Dymarki a weak smile.

  ‘We’d better go and eat. Try not to insult the Bareskins about their food, if we have to travel with them I want it to be congenial.’

  Hauga wrinkled his nose. ‘It’s going to be tough, their food smells simply horrendous. But I’ll hide my revulsion to it for you Cearc.’

  ‘That’s all a leader can ask Hauga,’ Dearen said with a smile. Her brother always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.

  After a short breakfast, the group left the riverbank camp and continued heading north.

  Dearen and Hauga walked in the middle of the group, and Tayme and the Hatar Trar left them to scout out the way ahead from the air while the man, Hanton, was sent to scout out the trail ahead. But during the morning, Dearen would hear Trar’s voice asking her if she was okay and if she really could not remember anything about Adhamh at all.

  The fact that she could not remember any of them at all seemed to bother the Hatar. Dearen shrugged that away. Her thoughts as they walked were more focused on what would happen to her, and the Dymarki, if what Tayme told her was true and that she was this Kalena Tsarland.

  As far as she was concerned, nothing would change. She is the Cearc, the leader of the Dymarki, that is who she is now, at this point in time. Whatever she was before cannot change that.

  ‘You never know Dearen. This might help a peace treaty between the Southern Bareskins and the Dymarki.’

  ‘It might. But that does not help us with the Arranians.’

  ‘No, but it might stop the Southern Bareskins from attacking our rear while we are dealing with the Arranians.’

  ‘True. Or they may sign a treaty with us and betray us anyway.’

  ‘Dearen!’

  ‘Hauga. Not all people are like the Dymarki. That much I do remember. Most are good but some are bad. Very bad’

  Hauga gave her a small shrug. ‘This lot seem okay though. Maybe we might have a chance at getting our homeland back. We can’t pass up a chance of that happening without a fight.’

  Dearen gave him no reply and focused her attention on the hike north. The further they moved, the stronger the feeling in her head grew. Now instead of being a feeling, it was more of a living presence. Dearen had the sense that it was trying to communicate with her, but something was blocking it. The scar tissue behind her ear had gradually started to itch as if there was something there trying to grab her attention. She rubbed it with her fingers, but the sensation persisted.

  ‘What will you do if you are this Kalena?’ Hauga suddenly asked.

  Dearen turned and gave him a hard stare while she rubbed hard at her scar. If she did not know any better, she would think the Dymarki was scared.

  ‘No matter what they say Hauga, or who I turn out to be. At the moment I am Dearen, Cearc of the Dymarki, and I am your sister. That will not change unless you or the Dymarki disown me.’

  ‘And that will not happen Dearen. We swore an oath that binds us until death, no matter who you are or what you do, that will never change.’

  ‘Thanks, Hauga.’

  ‘If what they say is true, that means that this Adhamh they are looking for is a Hatar’le’margarten. Imagine, the Cearc riding a Hatar’le’margarten. That would be enough to put the Fear of Flattu into anyone who opposed us.’

  Dearen tried to stop the snigger that the comment brought to her lips but ended up sounding like a pig snorting. That then made her and Hauga burst out laughing which startled the already uneasy men around them. She did not care. The laugh made her feel good and helped to dispel the confused feelings that were pushing to be heard in her mind.

  It was not long after that Trar and Tayme appeared in the sky flying back towards them, and for once the Hatar was not trying to talk to her.

  As soon as Dalon Peana was made aware, he stopped the group to wait. Trar turned on a wingtip and landed on the path ahead in an open area that could accommodate her size. Tayme did not dismount, and as soon as Peana and the rest of the group were within earshot he called out. “There is a camp off to the north from here that has been attacked.”

  Hauga looked at Dearen with a startled look and then pushed forward with a snarl, causing the men around him to go for the hilts of their swords. Dearen followed him and placed a hand on his arm to calm him.

  ‘They can’t understand you. Let me talk,’ she told him. She then turned to Tayme.

  “That is a Dymarki camp. We had friends there. Do you know if they are okay?”

  Tayme looked to the Lieutenant, who nodded his permission to talk.

  “Trar did see some Ice Tiger bodies but we could not see who did the attack or where they had gone from there.”

  “We’ve got to go Dearen. If there are survivors we need to help them.’

  “Yes we do,” she replied quietly. Louder to the group she said. “Hauga and I are heading to the camp. You can choose to follow us or not, but it is probably a good bet that this was done by the Arranians. And if you are looking for a group, this could be them.”

  “You both need to stay here with us,” the lieutenant cut in.

  Dearen looked the man square in the face. “We are going and we will travel quicker by ourselves than with you. If you want us then follow because the only way to stop us going is to kill us.”

  “Kalena. Don’t,” Tayme called down. “I’ll fly with them and Trar can keep an eye on them. We’ll assess the area before you arrive. If there are survivors it would be better for an Ice Tiger be the first to enter the camp rather than one of our own men.”

  Dalon Peana thought on Tayme’s words a moment. “Very true.” He turned and looked around at his men as if gauging their mood before turning back to Tayme. “You fly with these two and we’ll follow.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  As soon as Hauga and Dearen heard the assent they took off running into the trees. Behind them, they heard the rustle of feathers and the sound of wings sweeping through the air as the Hatar leapt up into the sky.

  CHAPTER Ten

  The Camp

  Hauga in his concern began to outdistance Dearen, forgetting that she was still only human. She called out to him and he slowed a little to help her move.

  ‘Hauga, is this the camp I think it is?’

  ‘Yes. This is the camp where you woke up after the Pydarki gave you into our care. This is where we first met.’

  ‘Then that means…’

  ‘Then that means that the people there are our Clans people, our family.’

  Dearen said no more, wanting to use all her concentration in moving her body forward as quickly as possible. Who could have done such a thing? It has to be the Arranians. They came and killed the old Cearc and a good number of the Clans people, and now they are going to systematically clear out all of the camps, even though this is not in Arranian held territory.

  Dearen ran but in her heart, she was dreading what she may – will – find there. These are friends. The first friends she could remember. They are her family.

  She signaled to Hauga to not wait for her and with not much more urging, Hauga took off, disappearing into the trees and undergrowth. Dearen continued on as fast as she was able. Her heart thudded quickly against her ribs and each intake of breath felt like a searing pain in her lungs as her stressed and exerted body cried out for more oxygen.

  A snarl reverberated from the trees ahead of her. Hauga must have arrived at the campsite. Dearen pushed herself harder to join him. She began to recognize some of the landscape about her and as she broke through the final ring of trees, Dearen stopped dead in her tracks.

  The cave mouth beckoned to her from the far end of the encampment, an old fire pit stood cold in the cent
er. Everywhere else was covered in bodies.

  There were no fires lit and everywhere was cold and silent and the food was left untouched in cook pots and platters. No one was moving and Dearen could hear – nothing. Nothing except Hauga’s rumbling.

  A few of the Dymarki was sitting upright against the stone entrance to the cave. The rest lay on the ground, slain either where they sat or stood.

  The Dymarki were the only dead. Whoever did this must have descended upon them so quickly that the camp had no chance to react, or came in such numbers that they were able to carry off their dead when they left.

  Hauga moved from body to body checking for any sign of life, his growling growing louder and louder with each friend he saw.

  Tayme came in from the other side. Trar must have landed in the open area near the river. The sight of the Southerner knocked Dearen out of the shock she was experiencing from all this death. She quickly moved forward and began to check the dead that Hauga had not seen yet. Each face was known to her and Dearen felt her anger rising higher at each new lifeless face that stared sightlessly back at her.

  ‘This is unforgivable,’ she said to Hauga.

  ‘This needs to be paid back in blood. They had been caught by surprise, given no chance at defense. They were slaughtered.’

  ‘It must have been the Arranians. This is my fault. They did it straight after I sent them our challenge. This is my fault.’

  ‘No. How were you to know that they would react like this? Instead of meeting us in open combat, they want to attack us like bandits.’

  ‘I should have known this would happen after what they did at Councilmeet.’

  ‘Dearen-’

  ‘They are the ones who started this, but we are going to be the ones who finish this.’

  “Kalena.”

  The voice tore Dearen’s attention away from Hauga and her eyes focused on Tayme who now stood in front of her.

  “Kalena.”

  Dearen’s eyes narrowed at the name as she rose from the final body. “My name is not Kalena. It is Dearen.”

  Tayme held his hands up in an effort to deflate the situation. “I’m sorry. Dearen. I wanted to see if you were okay.”

  “Me? I am fine, but The Lord of Winds help whoever did this when I find them.”

  Hauga now stood next to her and gave a growl of agreement. Tayme took an involuntary step backwards at the sound.

  ‘They are all dead, though whoever did this may have taken captives.’

  “The Arranians have never taken captives before, what makes you think they have now?”

  ‘There are two missing who should be here. Unless they are lying further afield, then they have been taken.’

  “We need to get them back.”

  “What is going on?” Tayme asked.

  Dearen turned her attention back to him. She had momentarily forgotten that he cannot hear their talk even though he could hear Trar’s mind talk.

  “Hauga had just told me that there are two missing from the camp. That they may have been taken by whoever attacked here.”

  Tayme glanced up at Hauga’s stony face and then back at Dearen. “You’re thinking of going after them aren’t you?”

  “There is no ‘think’ about it. We are. Why?”

  Tayme gave a small smile. “It’s just something that you would do. You’re always helped friends in trouble.”

  “Did you see any sign of their passage from where you entered?”

  Tayme shook his head. “Trar did not see anything but she can’t see through the thick trees. Not even the heat signatures can be seen through the thick canopy here.”

  ‘I’ll go and scout around the camp outskirts to see if I can find out which direction they have gone.’

  “Yes, go before the wind covers the tracks.”

  Hauga gave her a small sniff and moved off into the surrounding trees. In the far, far distance came the faint sound of the rest of their group coming through the trees. Dearen did not plan on waiting for them once Hauga had finished his track.

  ‘Dearen, someone is coming in from the North. They are not Dymarki.’

  “Hauga says that there is someone coming,” Dearen told Tayme and drew her sword as she turned to the North. She heard the sound of metal as Tayme did the same.

  A few moments passed and then Dearen heard Hauga’s voice again.

  ‘Ah, it is that tracker we captured. Hanton. He is excited about something. I’ll follow him in.’

  Dearen released the breath she had been holding and sheathed her sword.

  “It’s Hanton.”

  Tayme slid his sword back in its scabbard and took a few steps forward. “He was scouting ahead of our group. He must have found something to make him come back to find us.”

  A few heartbeats later, the tracker entered the clearing and suddenly stopped at the sight of the carnage.

  “What happened?” he asked wheezing.

  Tayme followed his gaze around the camp. “We were just trying to work that out ourselves. The camp was like this when we got here.”

  Hanton nodded and then stood a few moments trying to catch his breath enough to talk. “Where is Lieutenant Peana?”

  Tayme jerked his head to the block of trees behind him. “He and the rest of his men are still coming. Why?”

  The tracker looked at Tayme a moment and then stared at Dearen. After a brief moment of indecision, he blurted out. “I have found an Arranian camp to the north of us.”

  “That must be the same group that did this!”

  “AND they have a black Hatar with them held captive.”

  “You’ve found Adhamh?” Tayme stepped forward, not able to tame his excitement. “How far away?”

  “They are not far, maybe just under an hour’s walk north,” Hanton panted as he pointed out the direction.

  “What are their numbers?” Dearen asked quickly, worried that Hanton may quickly clam up and wait for the lieutenant.

  “The Arranians number about fifteen to twenty men as far as I could tell. They have the Hatar chained and roped at the northern end of their camp. At least three of the men there are high ranking, and one wore the robes of a Spellcrafter.”

  ‘Spellcrafters!’ Hauga’s voice boomed in surprise and maybe a little fear.

  “They have Spellcrafters with them?” Tayme could not keep the disbelief from his voice.

  “It looks like it,” Hanton replied a little defensively.

  “That might explain why there was not much of a fight when they captured Adhamh.”

  “We are going to have to think of a way to neutralize the Spellcrafter if they have one,” Dearen said.

  ‘Kill them. You can’t trust them alive.’

  “Maybe Hauga, but we will have to think of a way to take them out first before the rest of the group can react.”

  ‘The only way to plan that is to go to their camp, study them, see if there are Spellcrafters and then act.’

  “I agree.” Dearen quickly took a breath to address Tayme and Hanton. “Hauga and I have decided to head to the Arranian camp and we are going with or without you. Though we would prefer you with us to help us out with numbers. Hanton, did the group look like it was going to stay put for a while?”

  “Yes. They had tents up and the Hatar was pretty well chained up. They are not going to be moving in a hurry. It looks like they have made a semi-permanent camp. Maybe that’s why this one was attacked. It was too close to theirs.”

  “Doesn’t matter why they did it. It just matters that we make them pay for all these deaths.”

  Hauga came out from the trees and stood like a giant sentinel stone. Waiting.

  “We are going. Tayme, you and Trar can follow us, but you may want to stay out of sight of the Arranian camp. If they can take one Hatar, they might be able to take another. Hanton, stay here and wait for the others. Tell them what we are doing and if your Lieutenant decides to follow, try and find us at the southern end of the Arranian camp.”

  The t
racker gave a weak nod before gulping loudly.

  “Trar and I will follow and we’ll watch out for the Spellcrafter. If we can take them out, then Trar can handle the rest.”

  “Right. Our plans are made. Let’s set about making them happen.”

  The Whisperer

  The Way to Freedom

  Book 7

  H.M. Clarke

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  “Do not give up, the Beginning is always the hardest.”

  -A Saying of the Pydarki

  CHAPTER ONE

  The quiet night was broken by the intermittent snoring of sleeping men and by the occasional clinking of chains from the immense, dark figure huddled at the far end of a large, grassy clearing.

  ‘They have two roving guards running the edges of the camp.’ Hauga said as he crept up next to Dearen and Tayme. He had just finished his reconnaissance of the Arranian encampment. And Trar was relaying their mind talk to Tayme so that he could be involved in the discussions.

  ‘There looks to be near thirty of them here with a small command tent in the center near the main fire.’ Hauga stroked his whiskers with a free hand as he used the other to steady his crouch.

  ‘I caught a glimpse of the commander, but something about him doesn’t look right.’