“Where?”
On the narrow path along the rock face on the southern slope of the peak of the pass. You know the spot?”
Kai nodded. He knew the spot. The rock face was almost sheer, and almost two hundred feet to it before it hit a gentler slope below. The woman was lucky to be alive after suffering such a fall. “Which way do you think they would be going?” Kai watched carefully as Raven hesitated before answering. Kai could see that she was torn about revealing some details of the kidnapping.
“Most likely northwest, to Kosal. She’s to be married to Prince Erik Ramsey. I was taking her far away to prevent that from happening.”
Kai stiffened at the mention of Erik Ramsey, it had been the prince who’d destroyed his life. A child to become that monster’s wife? No wonder they were fleeing through the mountain passes. “I’ll help you. We leave at first light.” Kai turned to Britt, “We’ll need dry goods, blankets, and a tent for Raven and the girl. Can you get them tonight?”
“Yes,” said Britt. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll pack your usual supplies.”
“What about horses?” asked Raven.
Kai thought about the mountains and how best to approach the situation before answering. “No, horses will only slow us down. You’ve lost a day, and depending on what path they used, it might take us another day or two to find their tracks. We’ll cut over the mountain to catch up.”
“Over the mountain?”
Kai nodded. “Yes, and perhaps over several more. We’ll not let a child fall into the hands of Erik Ramsey.” Not only did Kai want to save the girl from such an unpleasant life, but thoughts of having Erik at the tip of his sword was too tempting to pass up.
9
IT HAD BEEN THREE DAYS SINCE THE AMBUSH. Isabella had been blindfolded, with her hands and feet tied for the first two days. But as they got farther into the mountains and away from any possible pursuit, her captors decided to remove her restraints.
Isabella blinked at the bright light as her eyes readjusted to sunlight. She looked around. They were setting up camp beside a small creek. Isabella could see mountains, trees, rocks and water, lots of water. “Where are we?” she asked the man holding her blindfold. Isabella was scared but relieved to have the blindfold removed.
“We are along the eastern coast,” said the man.
Isabella looked carefully at the man. She’d been listening to the men talk and this one was the leader. This man had the voice that barked out orders. He was a burly man with a weathered face and deep set eyes. She was sure she’d seen the man before, but she could not remember where. Isabella thought about what the man had just said. They were along the eastern coast? That seemed strange. The kingdom of Kosal was to the west. “We’re not going to Kosal?”
“Ah, you are a right smart lass. No, we’re not going to Kosal. We’re going elsewhere. Don’t worry, child, you’ll know all you need to know soon enough.”
“How am I to address you?” asked Isabella. Now that she could see her kidnappers and talk to them, she could get an idea of what type of men she was dealing with.
The man gave Isabella a large over flourished bow. “Forgive me, Princess, how rude not to introduce myself. I am Juelz Cobb. Now, let’s be very clear. Just because I removed your hood and bindings does not mean you’re not a prisoner. Any attempt to escape will bring punishment. Do you understand?”
Isabella thought back to watching Eron die and Raven fall off the cliff. She understood how dangerous these men were. She gulped a knot of fear building in her throat. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good. Now why don’t you cook us something to eat. I’m tired of Toby’s cooking,” said Juelz as he pointed to the supplies.
Toby, a large curly-haired man with a huge belly, turned to protest. “My cooking isn’t that bad. It’s better than Ollie’s. What makes you think the child can do any better?”
Juelz laughed, a dry cackling sound, “Ollie is the worst cook in three kingdoms, that doesn’t make your cooking any more edible. I’ll take my chances with young Isabella cooking.” Juelz turned to Isabella, “You can cook can’t you?”
Isabella nodded.
“What if she tries poisoning us?” asked the third man, a pocked face man with beady eyes. Isabella assumed that this was Ollie.
“Then it won’t be any different than your cooking,” said Juelz.
Ollie scowled and turned away.
Isabella moved to the supplies. The men were being friendly and joking among each other, but the looks on their faces warned of violence. These were rough men who killed with no hesitation. She would be very careful about what she did and said around them. Escape was her goal, but finding the right time to try was the key. They were along the eastern coast, but how far south? She didn’t recognize any of the mountains around her. She’d only traveled east to the inland villages. She’d not seen the eastern sea more than twice in her life. She’d have to head north and west. But west also meant going towards Eric Ramsey. Isabella didn’t know what she could do, so for now she’d simply wait.
10
THE SUN HAD NOT YET RISEN, BUT ALREADY Kai was up and preparing for the journey. Despite the fact that Kai regularly drank himself into oblivion, he was always an early riser. Most days he was up before dawn, leaving his soddy to go hunting. Providing villagers with fresh game was Kai’s main source of income. It kept him fed, and with enough coin to drink away his pain every night.
Looking up at the sky, Kai noted that the clouds had disappeared overnight. Today would be sunny and bright. If they had any luck finding tracks, the bright warm sun would help. If they didn’t find tracks, the weather wouldn’t matter at all, other than affecting the comfort level of traveling.
Raven was waiting for him when he arrived at the Winking Pig. Britt Wistol had allowed Raven to spend the night sleeping in front of the fireplace of the pub. Not a bad place to sleep. Raven lifted two packs. “Britt says everything we need is in here.”
Kai nodded and took his pack. He slung the pack over his back along with his bow. His quiver of arrows was attached to his belt. “You ready?”
“Let’s go,” said Raven.
Kai could tell the woman was eager to get moving. Her concern for the girl was written across her face. “You sure that Eric Ramsey is behind her kidnapping?”
“No,” admitted Raven. “I cannot say that for sure. He is the one we were worried about, but that doesn’t mean he’s behind it.”
“For now, we’ll assume that Erik is behind it. That means they’d be heading to Kosal. They would either backtrack north through the mountains, the way you came, or they would come down the mountain pass and then head straight west to the Valley of Tears. We’ll head west and check for horse tracks. The rains might’ve washed away the tracks on the rocky ground of the pass, but the grounds to the west are much softer. If they went that way, we’ll know.”
“If they didn’t?” asked Raven.
“Then we head to the mountain. We go to the ambush site and try to backtrack them. If we find tracks heading north, we cut over the mountain top and try get ahead of them. The horses will give them an advantage, but with the weather yesterday they wouldn’t have gone far. We can catch them, as long as we can find the trail.”
“Lead the way.”
“Let me know if you need to slow down,” said Kai as he took off.
…
After a couple hours of jogging, Kai was starting to breathe heavy. It had been a long time since he’d run for that long. He looked back to see how Raven was fairing. She looked fresh and unaffected. Her breathing was normal and she wasn’t even sweating yet. While Kai, on the other hand, was drenched in sweat, his body pushing out the alcohol toxins he’d ingested the day before.
Finally, they were able to slow down. Kai stopped jogging and started walking. He’d kept an eye open for tracks the entire way from the village of Shelby, but now he needed to be extra careful.
“Why are we slowing?” asked Raven.
&nbs
p; Kai pointed to the mountain to the northwest. “That’s hogback ridge. It runs from about a mile west of here, all the way north. It’s very steep and has no passes. Any horses traveling this way would have to come south of the ridge. If they came west, we’ll know in the next mile.” Kai was now walking in towards the northwest, but he wasn’t walking in a straight line. He was taking long zigzags, keeping his eye on the ground. He was looking for depressions in the dirt, broken twigs, even bent blades of grass, anything that would indicate an animal had come this way. Tracking horses was much easier than tracking wild animals. Horseshoes and deep tracks, made following horses easy, once Kai found them. So far, he’d found the tracks of deer, a fox, and several sheep, but no horses.
As they kept walking, Kai would occasionally stop and examine a particular track or spot, but nothing fit. No horses had come this way in the last few days. Kai stopped when they reached the base of the ridge. “There are no horse tracks.”
Raven nodded in understanding. “So we head into the mountains.”
Kai took a deep breath. They needed to move fast. They’d lost several hours coming west, but it had been necessary. Now they’d have to run back to the mountain and then up to the site of the ambush. Without saying a word, Kai started jogging. They didn’t need to search for tracks now so he picked up the pace. God, I’ve gotten fat and lazy, thought Kai. A good ranger could run all day, he’d only managed a couple hours of jogging before his lungs had started to protest. He expected they would feel like they were on fire by the time they made it to the ambush site.
…
Kai bent over, his hands on his hips, gasping for air. They had finished the grueling run and were now back at the site of the ambush.
“When you get your breath, we keep going?” asked Raven.
Kai stood tall and put both hands on top of his head, he took deep breaths. Raven was barely breathing hard. Kai needed a drink. “No. Now we find out as much as we can about your attackers.”
Raven walked Kai through the attack, she explained where Eron had been, where the arrow had come from and where she’d gone over the cliff.
Kai looked down the cliff to the ledge below where she’d landed. It was a long ways down and very steep. She was lucky to not have broken any bones, or worse. Kai then climbed up the face of the ledge. He found the spot where one of the ambushers had sat and waited for Raven and her friends. The ambush had been well planned. Two archers, well protected by the rocks, while the third man grabbed the girl. Even if Raven’s horse hadn’t gone over the ledge, she would’ve been hard pressed to survive the archers’ attacks. Kai moved to the next spot, he found scratched stones where someone had sat waiting for the ambush. Kai closed his eyes and pictured the scene. “Three men. At least one of them is a skilled warrior. This ambush was well planned. You were fortunate to have survived.”
“I was a fool. I should’ve known it was an ambush.”
Kai shrugged, “Perhaps. But the whole point of an ambush is surprise. You were wary of the old man, but the archers were impossible to see until you were right under them. The fact that the weather was getting worse forced you to keep going down the path. Taking the blame for walking into an ambush attack, ignores the fact that it was a well-planned ambush. We can’t afford to underestimate the enemy. They have advantage enough without us adding stupidity to our shortcomings.”
Raven shot Kai an icy glare, but her facial features relaxed as she contemplated his words. “You are correct. It was a well-planned ambush. Now how do we catch them?”
“On the north side of the pass is a high mountain meadow. You remember it?” asked Kai.
“Yes, we camped for a night there.”
“All paths up the north side of the mountain cross through that meadow. The meadow is soft soil. The rains will have made it even softer. There we will find the tracks of the ambushers.” Kai turned and started climbing the mountain.
“What are you doing? I thought we were heading towards the meadow?” asked Raven as she pointed up the mountain trail.
“We’re going over the mountain. We’ll gain half a day by climbing.”
Raven looked dubiously at the mountain. “I’m no goat.”
Kai laughed, “No, but I am. Or at least I can occasionally climb like one. In your pack you’ll find a rope. Tie yourself to one end and throw me up the other end.”
After tying the rope around herself, Raven tossed Kai the rope. “If I die on this mountain, I am going to haunt you.”
“You’re tied to me. If you fall, I fall. You’ll have to find someone else to haunt when you die because I’ll be dead with you.” Kai watched Raven’s face. His answer seemed to mollify the warrior. Even the bravest of warriors would panic when asked to do things outside their comfort zone. Climbing mountains was dangerous enough without having another person tied to you, especially when that person was nervous. “Just take your time and be sure of your footing. Watch where I go and follow.”
11
A TINGLING SENSATION WENT DOWN ISABELLA’S SPINE, and her skin felt like it was on fire. Surges of pain filled her body to the point where she wanted to scream out, but some instinct told her not to alert the men that something was amiss. What’s happening to me? she thought. It was night time and the camp was quiet. Across the glowing embers of the fire, Isabella could see that Toby and Ollie were asleep. Juelz was standing far away from the fire, standing watch.
Just then, a crunching sound came from the dark beyond the light of the camp fire. Isabella could see Juelz drawing his sword. He disappeared into the dark to inspect the source of the sound. Seconds later, a soft thumping sound came to Isabella’s ears. It sounded like something falling.
Isabella waited nervously, her spine was still tingling but the pain in her skin was diminishing. She’d wanted to scream out in agony, but something was out there. Screaming now seemed like a really bad idea.
Suddenly, Isabella felt the ropes tying her hands behind her back being moved. Someone was cutting her loose! No that wasn’t quite right, something was chewing on her ropes. Isabella felt strangely comfortable with the idea. It was weird, but she just knew that whatever was behind her was there to help her. Isabella feeling the ropes breaking, quickly leaned down and untied her feet.
“Follow me,” said a soft but deep voice from behind her.
As Isabella stood up, a rock shifted under her foot. It was only a small sound, but it was enough.
Toby’s eyes opened and he saw Isabella standing up with no ropes. He looked around “Ollie, wake up!” he yelled as he jumped up.
Isabella turned and started to follow the dark shadow that was leading her away from the camp, but it was too dark to run. She caught her foot on a tree root and fell to the ground.
Toby and Ollie were running towards her, torches and swords in hard. “Where the hell do you think you are going?” said Toby to Isabella, his scowling face was bathed in the flickering light of his torch.
“She’s leaving. You should turn around and head back to your camp,” said the soft deep voice Isabella had been following.
Ollie pushed his torch forward and peered into the darkness, trying to see who was talking. “She’s not going anywhere and the only one leaving is you. On your own, or piece by piece, it’s your choice.”
Isabella was too nervous to move. She squinted her eyes and tried to see what was out there, trying to lead her away from the camp. All she could see were eyes. Big, bright eyes like those of a very large cat. Gold and black with flickering hues of blue.
“You had your chance to leave. Now you die,” said Toby as he and Ollie ran past Isabella.
The pair of golden eyes backed away and turned to the side so that Isabella was not in line with her captors as they attacked the source of the voice. Isabella instinctively knew t something bad was about to happen. She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see this.
As Ollie got closer, he was able to see more than just the golden eyes of the creature. “Dragon!” he snarled as h
e continued his attack.
Flames filled the air, engulfing Ollie and Toby. Their yells of anger turned to screams of agony and then, mercifully for Isabella they went silent.
When Isabella heard the screams, she could feel the heat of the flames on her body. She had heard Ollie yelling “Dragon,” and had not been surprised. When she’d looked into the golden eyes she had known what her savior was. It was a dragon! Isabella was Dragonblood. She had been born with the mark of the dragon. A small birthmark on her left shoulder that looked like a tattoo of a dragon claw. Each year the birthmark got bigger and more detailed, like an invisible hand had slowing been finishing a drawing over the years.
The fact that Isabella was Dragonblood, had been a well-kept secret. Outside of her mother, and Raven, only a handful of people had ever seen the mark. Even fewer knew what it meant. Even Isabella was unsure what it meant. She knew that she could bond with a dragon and gain powers, but no one had seen a dragon for over a hundred years, until now. Isabella took a deep breath and stood up. She picked up one of the fallen torches and walked towards the dragon. In the flickering light of the torch, Isabella examined the dragon. It was smaller than she’d imagined dragons to be, but it was certainly not small. About the size of a horse or an ox, gold scales with a purple tinge and wings that folded back along its back. Isabella was in awe of the beauty of the majestic creature, and despite the danger it presented, Isabella was strangely certain she was safe.
“Hello, Isabella, I’m Sisera.”
“Hello, Sisera.” Isabella liked the sound of Sisera’s voice, a deep soft baritone with a melodic tone.
“I’m sorry that I had to do that. I didn’t want to.”
Isabella shook her head. Her first encounter with a dragon was like nothing she’d imagined. “They were kidnappers and were trying to kill you. You were right to kill them,” Isabella looked back towards the camp. “What happened to the third one?”
“I put him to sleep. Perhaps we should leave before he wakes with a headache. I don’t want to kill anyone else.”
Sisera's Gift (Dragonblood Sagas Book 2) Page 5