Hinterland Book 3: The Wolf's Hunt (Hinterland Series)

by K. T. Harding

  Raleigh fought to get her emotions under control. She couldn’t let anyone find out she planned to break this prisoner out. “Does the Guild of Martial Arts know about this? Didn’t they bring him here for safekeeping?”

  “Oh, they don’t care,” Teif replied. “As long as we keep him alive, we can do what we want with him.”

  Raleigh stared straight in front of her at the tormented figure in the ring. “This isn’t exactly Epistemological, is it?”

  Teif sighed. “No, it isn’t. We’re Eol’i, after all. We need sport and blood and entertainment. Maybe that’s why we’re not so well suited to the Guild as others like the Eochehxea.”

  Raleigh understood. These might be sentient cats. They might be intelligent, thoughtful, civilized cats, but they were still cats. They still needed a mouse to play with. They still needed the entertainment of some helpless creature getting killed.

  So this was the rot hidden underneath Solaris’s ethereal exterior. The Guild might want to live in a castle in the air and dwell in a world of thought, but living creatures prevented it from becoming a full reality.

  Dax stiffened when Bishop appeared. When Bishop’s eyes swept over his friends, Dax lurched out of his seat. Raleigh barely caught him in time and pulled him back down. “Not yet,” she whispered.

  “Just watch,” Teif chortled. “It gets better.”

  Bishop staggered to the center of the ring. Rasping noises came from his throat when he breathed, but none of the cats went near him. If anything, they drew back from the ring to give him plenty of space.

  Raleigh’s blood ran cold. What were they going to do to him? Her mind darted all over the scene for any clue how to rescue Bishop from this horror, but she couldn’t think of one. She could understand an attack on the Guild of Martial Arts. They were real people who ran along the ground and fought with real weapons. What were these Epistemologists, that lived in the air in a world of thought?

  Angela believed they were just as dangerous as any Martial Artists, that they had their own thought weapons no one could understand. How could Raleigh fight something like that?

  A loud thunderclap cracked across the sky. The cloud overhead turned an ominous shade of coal-grey. Bishop looked up, and a hush fell over the crowd.

  Just then, the cloud split apart and hundreds of squirrely red snake-shapes pelted down on the ring. They squirmed and wriggled through the air. Gravity sped them on their flight. Most hit the ground all around Bishop’s feet. They wormed into the ground and disappeared.

  Others hit him on the head and shoulders. They attached themselves to his skin and clothes and hair. They flailed madly and stuck straight out of him, burning red. Others streaked past him and seared his skin before they vanished into the ground.

  More and more of the things rained down at every passing second until they stuck out all over Bishop like porcupine quills. He batted them away and screamed and cringed under their attack.

  Teif laughed and cheered along with the rest of the Eol’i.

  Raleigh choked on the words. “What are they? What are they doing to him?”

  “They’re Uk. They founded this city. They lived here for millennia before the Eochehxea moved the Guild here.”

  “Why are they attacking him?” Raleigh asked. “Are they sentient?”

  “They aren’t exactly Epistemological,” Teif replied. “They can think and communicate on a limited basis—kind of like humans. They obey the Eochehxea, though. The Eochehxea found a way to dominate them mentally. They can give the Uk silent mental suggestions and get them to do things, such as defend the city if we were ever under attack. They’ve never had to use the Uk for that, but they use them for other things—like this, for instance. They had to give the Eol’i something to do, so they used the Uk for that.”

  Raleigh did her best to shove the understanding of what he meant out of her mind, but it didn’t work very well. These Epistemologists were just as inhuman and callus as the Guild of Husbandry. They moved so far out into space they didn’t care who they hurt.

  Dax made another lunge to get out of his seat. Raleigh summoned all her strength to hold him back. She hissed under her breath. “Sit down! Be still.”

  “We have to help him,” Dax murmured. “We can’t leave him down there. Just look at him!”

  She moved her mouth close to his ear. “Don’t you think I want to help him? We can’t do it now. Those things would kill us.”

  He struggled against her hands. “I have to!”

  “Take a look around you,” she whispered. “These things have orders to keep him alive. They’re playing with him, but they won’t kill him. They don’t have any orders to keep us alive. If you blow our cover now, all these cats will attack us and we’ll never leave here alive. They’ll rip us to pieces, and Bishop will have no chance of getting out.”

  His eyes shot to her face.

  She nodded. “Sit still and be quiet. Open your eyes and look around you. This is what we have to fight to get him free, and we can’t fight them now. We have to get out of here and meet up with Angela. We have to plan this so we only have to come back here one more time. We’ll get him, and we’ll take him home.”

  He glanced down at her mouth. “Do you promise?”

  “I swear it. I want him out of here as much as you do. If we show our hand now, he’s finished and so are we. Got it?”

  He turned back to the ring and nodded. He sank down into this seat, and he didn’t try to get up again. He dug his fingernails into his knees, and every inch of his muscled body tensed to spring, but he held himself back.

  Raleigh hated to think what he would have done if he had gone down into that ring. Maybe the Uk would have attacked him, too. Maybe he would have blown them all away with his power and taken Bishop home then and there. Who knows?

  Raleigh couldn’t bank on maybes, though. What Dax might do or could do meant nothing. They couldn’t go after Bishop until they knew for sure they could win, no matter what.

  The Eol’i laughed and cheered all around her, but Raleigh sat in a silent bubble of thought and planning and horror. How could she amass enough weapons to defeat this Guild? No slayer on the planet could shoot fast enough to gun down all those Uk.

  She didn’t know anything about these Eochehxea, but they must be the ones using the thought weapons Angela mentioned. How could she defeat them? They would use everything they had to hang onto their prisoner.

  Raleigh forced herself to smile at Teif. “Is it like this every day?”

  Teif twitched his whiskers. “Not always. Sometimes he puts up more of a fight. I think he’s getting tired of it all. He used to fight a lot harder. He used to tear the Uk off and stamp on them. That sent all the Eol’i into spasms of laughter. He doesn’t do it anymore. Do you see how he limps? He’s exhausted. I think they ought to give him a day’s rest in between shows, but these others don’t listen to me. They want their entertainment, and they’ll get it.”

  Raleigh gambled her last remaining card. “Where do they keep him when he’s not here?”

  Teif blinked and looked away. “They keep him in the basement of the Elementary School. Now that the school is in recess, the students aren’t around. Maybe they’ll move him once School comes back into session. I don’t know.”

  Raleigh froze. “When does that happen?”

  “In two weeks’ time.”

  She gave him her sweetest smile. “But you’re the Master of the Elementary School, Teif. You must have access to this prisoner.”

  He shrugged. “I have my key to the building, if that’s what you mean.”

  Raleigh’s heart thundered in her chest. She put out her hand and raked her fingernails down the kitten’s back. She massaged his shoulders and twirled his tail around. “Could you let us in to see this prisoner? Would you do that for me, Teif? Would you let me speak to him alone? You have my word of honor I won’t do anything to help him escape or anything.”

  He pur
red into her hands. “I knew you were a temptress when I first saw you. I should scratch your eyes out right now for even trying to corrupt a city official like this.”

  Raleigh stroked down his spine one more time. “Dear Teif. Please?”

  He rubbed his cheek into her fingers. “Oh, all right. Just wait until the show is over, and I’ll take you there, but only if you keep petting me for the rest of the show.”

  Raleigh smiled even bigger. “It’s a deal.” She lifted the kitten onto her lap and petted him and scratched his neck and chin. It distracted her from Bishop’s ordeal until, at an invisible command, all the Uk dropped away. They let go of him and hit the ground. In half a second, not one Uk remained to be seen.

  Bishop went back to twisting back and forth in a desperate search for unseen assailants. The Eol’i in the crowd simmered down to a low drone. The show was over.

  All at once, Bishop spun around and his eye fell on Dax and Raleigh in their seats. For the first time, he recognized someone. He saw the kitten in Raleigh’s lap, and they stared at each other in shock.

  The next moment, some mysterious force caught hold of him and wrenched him away. He cried out and covered his head with his hands, but Raleigh couldn’t see anything attacking him. He stumbled across the ring, and the crowd swallowed him up the way he appeared in the first place.

  Chapter 18

  Raleigh paced up and down outside the cloud-building where the Eol’i watched Bishop fight off the Uk. Dax stood still, but she couldn’t stand in one place. It was all true. She couldn’t deny the fact any longer.

  She never wanted to admit to herself that Bishop might be alive. Now she’d seen him with her own eyes. Her whole world crashed down around her ears for the second time.

  What should she do to free him? What could she do to free him? She dared not fight these forces. Even the multitude of cats in that amphitheater scared her a lot worse than any foe she ever fought before.

  Dax spoke up. “What are we gonna do now?”

  “As soon as Teif comes out, he’s going to take us to see Bishop. This ordeal is costing Bishop precious time. He’s been through too much, and he’s losing hope. I have to see him and tell him we’re here. I have to tell him we’re coming after him, just to give him something to fight for.”

  Dax shook his head. “You shouldn’t do that.”

  Raleigh paid no attention. “I have to. I’ve lived without him all these months. I have to see him one more time. He saw me in the crowd. I have to talk to him. Then we’ll go back and find Angela. We’ll draw up a battle plan and get cracking.”

  “How are we going to get back?” Dax asked. “I don’t know how we got here in the first place.”

  She stopped pacing to grin at him. “Maybe if you think about that problem long enough, it will happen automatically like it did last time.”

  He didn’t smile. He shook his head and looked away. “I’m a liability to you.”

  “You got us here, and that’s no liability.”

  “I almost blew our chances in there. I’m sorry about that.”

  She put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you think I feel the same way? I would give anything to destroy them all, but it won’t work that way. When the time comes, you can unleash your power and destroy them all you want, and I won’t try to stop you.”

  He shuddered. “Don’t even joke about that. I hate being like this. I hate being dangerous.”

  She stroked his cheek. “Sweetie, you’re a slayer. The more dangerous you are, the better. You just don’t understand yourself. If you did, you would realize you’re only dangerous to evil people and evil forces. To the good and innocent, you’re a harmless pussy cat.”

  Dax grimaced. “I never want to see another cat as long as I live.”

  She burst out laughing. “Me, neither.”

  Raleigh turned away to start pacing again when Teif appeared in the mist. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I wanted to make sure the prisoner was back in the basement, and now he is. You can follow me.”

  Raleigh looked back over her shoulder. “Will the other Eol’i see you helping us?”

  “They’ll see me taking you to my building, and that’s my prerogative. Follow me. I have an appointment after this. I’ll let you in to see him, and then I really must ask you to leave.”

  “That’s okay. I appreciate you helping us, Teif.”

  He drawled through his nose. “If I can enjoy your delightful company by helping you see that prisoner, I will do it.”

  He led the way between several large cloud banks. They all looked the same to Raleigh, but Teif knew his way around. He twisted and turned all over the city until he came to another cloud just like all the others. He went into it, and Raleigh followed him.

  The clouds parted, and she found herself standing in another featureless cloud landscape with only blue sky above. She frowned. “How do you learn your way around the city when everything looks the same?”

  “You must use your mental powers,” Teif told her. “Everyone here uses their Epistemological powers to navigate from place to place. That’s the only way to survive in this city. You would become hopelessly lost without that.”

  He tiptoed into the cloud, and it formed steps under his tiny paws. He descended, but he didn’t appear to go anywhere. He remained in the same place, right in front of Dax and Raleigh.

  She shrugged. “Well, I guess there’s nothing to do but go down.”

  She stepped onto the stairs. Down, down she went, but never seemed to move. The endless cloud landscape never changed. She could recognize no features or landmarks anywhere. She had no idea where she was until Teif stopped.

  He swiveled his ears back and forth. “This is it. You’ll have a few minutes at the most, so use them wisely. Are you ready?”

  Raleigh nodded. Teif blinked, and a swirl of thick cloud enveloped her so she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. The next minute, a murky light appeared. The clouds opened before her, and she found herself in a bare white room of high walls.

  The impenetrable sky hung overhead, but she couldn’t see one cloud anywhere. She saw only Bishop slumped in a corner. He rested his arms on his knees and his chin on his chest.

  Raleigh wanted to run to him, but something rooted her to the spot. She couldn’t move. “Bishop!” she called.

  He glanced up and went back to staring at the floor.

  “Bishop! It’s me, Raleigh. Please look at me.”

  He looked up again. A hideous scowl disfigured his face, and he curled his lips at her. “You shouldn’t have come here. Leave me alone.”

  She couldn’t go to him, but she could squat down to his level. She had to. “I had to see you. I had to talk to you. We’ve been searching everywhere for you.”

  He shook his head. “Leave me alone. You can’t do anything for me. Save yourself.”

  Her heart ached for him, and her throat tightened. “I couldn’t leave you here, Bishop. We’re working to get you out. That’s what I came to tell you.”

  “No one can get me out,” he mumbled. “Don’t waste your lives trying. Just leave me here. You’ll be better off.”

  “Bishop,” she sobbed. “Bishop, I love you.”

  He looked up again, and the grotesque mask of violent hatred gave way to despair. He was still in there. Her love, her own Bishop, was still alive in that tormented shell.

  “Go away,” he croaked. “I couldn’t bear to see you get hurt. Save yourself and forget about me.”

  “I could never forget you, Bishop—never. I can’t live without you. If you’re going to suffer here, I want to be where you are. Don’t you understand that? Don’t push me away.”

  He looked away from her, and his voice broke. “I can’t live without you, either, but I have to. I lived without you all these months, and I’ll keep doing it after you’re gone. Seeing you like this hurts too much. I don’t want to see you if I can’t have you. I don’t want you seeing me
like this. I would rather go through it alone.”

  Raleigh got to her feet. Her throat ached. She barely contained her emotion. “I understand. I just wanted to see you and let you know I haven’t forgotten you. I’m doing everything I can to bring you back. Just remember that.”

  He didn’t say anything more, and she turned away. She didn’t want to see him like that, either, all broken and hopeless. That prisoner in there wasn’t her Bishop. Her Bishop was strong and confident and unstoppable.

  She walked through a wall of cloud and rejoined Teif. He cocked his head. “All finished? That was quick.”

  She swallowed hard. “I just wanted to see him in there.”

  Teif walked away. “I better go now. Can you find your way back?”

  “We’ll be fine. Thank you for all your help, Teif.”

  He called back over his shoulder. “Any time.”

  Raleigh turned around to find Dax glaring her. “What’s wrong?”

  “How can you treat him like a friend after what he’s done? He’s no better than the rest of them.”

  “Maybe not,” she replied, “but he helped us. Maybe he’ll help us again sometime.”

  Dax clenched his jaw. “I doubt it. He’s the enemy.”

  Raleigh walked the opposite way that Teif went. “Yes, he is, but right now, we have other things to worry about.”

  “I still don’t know how we’re going to get back,” Dax told her.

  “Never mind. Just take a walk with me, and let’s talk strategy.”

  “What strategy?” he asked. “The only way to get Bishop back is to go in there guns blazing and mow them all down, the same way we did at the Guild of Martial Arts.”

  Raleigh shook her head. “That won’t work here. Angela says they have some serious weapons we don’t know about. If we went in there guns blazing, we wouldn’t last ten seconds.”

  “How are we going to do it, then?”

  “I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but I do know where we’re going to do it and when.”

  “Where and when?” he asked.