Tara took hold of Reina’s elbow and turned her toward the north. “It’s the only way. Come on. We don’t have time to waste arguing.”
She set off through the trees, at a right angle to the path leading back to the village. Nothing remained there for her anymore. Reina followed her lead, and the boys came behind her.
She walked all day. Traveling took a lot longer walking than running. She wasn’t used to traveling so slowly. Toward noon, she stopped under a rocky overhang. A trickle of water dripped over the edge, and she cupped her hand to lift the water to her lips.
Allen and Taman collapsed on the ground in the shade and closed their eyes. Taig rolled his eyes and joined Tara at the spring. She collected a handful of water and helped Reina drink before she sat the girl down to rest.
She waited more than an hour for the Ursidrean boys to revive. They couldn’t waste any more time. She took Reina’s hand and led her to the path when Ari and Aeifa emerged from the trees. Ari smiled, but Aeifa wouldn’t look at any of them.
Tara breathed a sigh of relief. She would never ask Ari what he said to convince Aeifa to come with them, but she wouldn’t make it difficult. She might not want to leave her home village, but she had no one else left. Separating from her twin and her cousins and staying alone in the deserted village would be so much worse.
Tara led the party into the trees, with Reina at her side, the Ursidrean boys behind her, and Ari and Aeifa bringing up the rear. They trekked into the unknown northward, always northward, into the Ursidreans mountains.
End of Book 1
Book 2: Outliers
Chapter 1
Taig ran a strip of leather through his fingers. “We’re going hunting.”
Allen stood up from his seat on a rock. “I’m coming with you.”
Taig and Tara exchanged glances. She waved her hand. “That might not be such a good idea.”
“As you’re so fond of pointing out,” Allen replied, “Taman and I can’t survive out here alone, so it’s time we started to learn. If we got separated from the rest of you, we’d be helpless. Besides, none of us has any idea how long we’ll be stuck out here in the wilderness. We need everyone contributing. I’m coming with you.”
Tara sighed and Taig shrugged. “Fine. You can come. Just try not to get in the way.”
“Speaking of being stuck out here in the wilderness,” Reina added, “does anybody know where we are? How much farther do we have to go to get to Ursidrean territory?”
The others looked at each other, but no one answered.
“We’ve been traveling for two weeks,” Reina went on. “We should have been there by now.”
Allen surveyed the mountains to the east. “If I had to guess, I’d say we crossed into Ursidrean territory already.”
“But you said we only had to go as far as the border,” Tara pointed out. “You said the border patrol would pick us up as soon as we got there. We haven’t seen another person since we left the village.”
Taman spoke up. “I overheard my father talking to Donen. He convinced the Ursidrean Supreme Council to cut the border patrols. He said we didn’t need them anymore with the peace agreement coming into effect, especially along the Lycaon border where we haven’t had a conflict in years.”
Allen rounded on his brother. “The patrols were already close to nothing years ago. If they reduced them anymore, there would be no one left on the border. Anyone could cross back and forth between the two factions any time they wanted.”
Taman nodded. “That’s right.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of the peace agreement?” Tara asked. “Our parents have been working toward this for years.”
“And no one has worked harder or sacrificed more than Donen,” Taman replied. “He would be the first one to reduce the border patrol where he perceived the least threat, and that would be on the Lycaon border.”
Reina’s hand flew to her forehead. “This is terrible. We could be miles away from the city.”
“Actually,” Tara countered, “I think it’s a good thing. It means our factions have finally reached a lasting peace. It means no one will bat an eye when we get to the city. They won’t see us as an invading force. I was worried about that.”
“That doesn’t get us any closer to the city,” Reina pointed out.
“We aren’t exactly suffering out here,” Tara argued. “We have enough to eat. We’ve slept comfortably every night. We’ve been traveling at a snail’s pace, but we’re still making progress. We crossed out of Lycaon territory a long time ago. I don’t recognize this country, so we must be getting pretty close.”
“Admit it. We’re lost,” Reina told her. “We could have passed the city by miles, and we could be wandering around in these mountains for months before anybody finds us.”
Aeifa spoke up for the first time. “Would that be so bad?”
Reina crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. Tara shifted her leather pouch on the strap binding it around her waist. “There’s no use arguing about it now. Me and Taig are going hunting. We can talk about our plans for the future when we get back and have full stomachs.”
“I’m coming with you,” Allen repeated.
Taman stood up. “I’m coming, too.”
Taig waved his hand. “No, no, no. One novice is enough. We can’t take two.”
Taman set his jaw. “I’m coming. I have just as much reason to learn to hunt as Allen does. If you’re taking him, you have to take me, too.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” Taig shot back.
“Aw, let him come,” Tara urged.
Taig rounded on her. “Are you kidding? You’ve heard how they walk through the forest. The game run away from their noise long before we get near them. We never see any game with those two around. If they both come, we might as well not go at all.”
Tara strode to the edge of their camp. “You don’t have to go. I’ll take them out, and we’ll bring back some meat for everyone to eat.”
“Now just hang on a minute....” Taig began.
Tara didn’t listen. She walked out of the camp with the long leather thongs of her sling dangling from her hand. The Ursidrean boys hurried after her, and they plunged into the trees. Taig scowled. Then he threw up his hands with a muttered curse and ran after them.
Tara stopped some distance out of the camp and faced the boys. “Now listen to me. If you want to come hunting with us, here’s the first thing you have to learn. You have to run. You can’t walk. Taig is right. You make too much noise, and you move too slowly to be any good. You scare all the game away, and the animals run from you before you get anywhere near them. The only thing you can do is learn to run like the Lycaon.”
Allen and Taman stared at her. “But we can’t run like the Lycaon. We’re Ursidreans.”
Tara shook her head. “You’re part human, and I’ve seen you side by side with your father, who is Ursidrean. You’re much thinner and lighter than he is, so you should be able to run as well as a human.”
Allen opened his mouth. Taman stammered a reply. “But we’ve never run before.”
Tara’s jaw dropped. “Never?”
Taman shrugged. “We go through conditioning training, but we don’t run.” He glanced sideways at his brother. “I don’t think any Ursidreans ever run. We aren’t built for it.”
Tara straightened up. “Well, you’re going to run now. My mother learned to run with the Lycaon when she was a lot older than you, and more than one human woman joined the Lycaon warriors. Now I don’t want to hear anymore excuses. Allen, you go first. Start running. Follow that trail. I’ll come behind you to make sure you don’t get separated or lost.”
Allen looked down the trail. Then he looked at his brother. Taig snickered from somewhere behind them. Allen started to say something, but Tara cut him off. She shoved him down the trail. “Go!”
He shook off his doubts and set off running. They didn’t run very w
ell at first. Tara barely had to trot to keep up with them. But the longer they ran, the faster and easier they went. Before long, she found herself jogging along at a decent pace behind them.
She glanced over her shoulder, and Taig shot her a big grin. He wasn’t rolling his eyes anymore. Maybe these Ursidreans weren’t so bad after all. They ran all the way up the mountain and stopped at the summit.
Both boys doubled over to gasp for breath, but Allen smiled at Tara. “How was that?”
She returned his smile. “Not too bad.”
Taman coughed. “How do you do it? You and Taig aren’t even breathing hard.”
“It’s just practice,” she told him. “You keep this up every day and pretty soon you’ll be as fast as any of us.”
“We still won’t be traveling any faster,” Taig broke in. “Reina will still have to walk.”
“At least they’ll be able to hunt.” Tara took three oblong stones from the pouch at her waist and straightened the thongs of her sling. “Now you boys stay here. I’m going down there....” She nodded down the slope.
Millions of miles of wilderness spread out in all directions around the mountain peak. Even higher mountains stood to one side, and bottomless valleys dotted the landscape between the ranges. The sun glittered on snow fields, and rivers tumbling into waterfalls disappeared into vast chasms. Some distance down a rocky bank, a herd of rut ox picked their way down a treacherous defile toward the west.
“I’m coming,” Allen told her. “I want to learn everything.”
“Me, too.” Taman moved forward.
Tara held up her hand. “You’ve have done a good day’s work already, but this is a one-person job. Even Taig is staying up here while I go down alone. Stay here, and you’ll be able to see everything from here.”
Allen frowned, but he didn’t press her. Tara fitted one of the stones into her sling and tugged it tight between her hands. The rut ox dropped one by one out of sight. She lowered her voice to a husky murmur. “Stay here.”
She set off down the path, but not fast. She dallied on the path to keep the rut ox in sight until the last straggler vanished behind a rock. Then she put on a burst of speed and ran after them. She hid behind the rock with every nerve stretched to the breaking point.
Her feet made no sound on the gravel slope. The rut ox stumbled on the path out of sight and knocked stones loose. The stones rang down the mountain and settled between the trees out of sight.
Tara peeked around the rock. The animals milled around and nibbled the leaves of bushes at the edge of the forest. They didn’t see her. She gave her sling a tug and set it swinging. She swung it faster and faster. Then she swung it around above her head. It whined through the air, and the rut ox lifted their heads to see where the sound came from.
Tara stepped out from behind the rock with the sling spinning above her head at full speed. She didn’t jump out, and she didn’t run. She walked across the grass toward the herd of oxen. She wouldn’t have much time to make her hit.
As soon as they saw her, they started moving away toward the trees, but she’d picked her time well. The oxen had only one narrow path to get away, and they couldn’t go more than single file. Cows and calves hurried away first. The bulls hung back to protect them, and that’s exactly the way Tara planned it.
She quickened her stride, but she didn’t still run. She had to stay steady on her feet if she had any hope of hitting one of them. The faster she walked, the quicker they hurried away, but they were too late. She didn’t have to reach them to kill them.
She planted her feet four yards from the last bull and let her stone fly. He was a young bull in his prime, but not as big as the others. He rolled his eyes and bellowed at her. He tossed his head and would have run after the others, but the stone whistled through the air faster than any eye could see. It smashed into the side of his head, right behind his ear.
He dropped to his knees with all his weight, but he was only stunned for a moment. He plunged forward, reeled, and crashed down onto his chest. His mouth hit the ground, and dirt mingled with bright blood.
Tara dropped her sling and rushed forward. She pulled a stone knife from her waist and leapt on the bull. She hooked two fingers into his nostrils and yanked his head back. The sun flashed off her knife, and she sliced the blade across his neck. The shaggy skin parted, and a spurt of black blood jetted onto the ground. Steam rose where it pooled in the grass, but Tara didn’t hesitate. She let go of the bull and jumped out of the way.
He plunged and reared and screeched in his death throes. He kicked and tore up the ground with his hooves. Every move sent another spurt of blood shooting out of his neck. Tara leapt clear of his flailing hooves.
The instant she jumped away, Taig took off down the steep slope. “Come on!” Allen and Taman ran after him, and the three young men stopped next to Tara. Taig slapped Tara on the shoulder. “Good job, girl.”
Chapter 2
Three days later, the group set off again toward the north, but this time, each of them carried a heavy pack full of food preserved from the bull ox. The heavy skin Tara carried for her bedding. The Ursidrean boys learned a lot about woodcraft in those three days, and they already showed more confidence than before. They didn’t hesitate anymore to venture into the forest without a Lycaon accompanying them.
At the top of the first ridge, Reina looked back. “I’m going to miss this camp. I was just starting to get comfortable here.”
“One camp is very like another,” Tara told her. “You’ll feel the same way in any camp where you spend any amount of time. That’s the way it works.”
“You can’t tell me you don’t miss your village,” Reina countered. “You can’t tell me you don’t miss your home.”
Tara shrugged. “The Lycaon never stay in one place very long. We migrate from one part of our territory to another. That village you saw wasn’t my home any more than a couple of dozen other places around our territory. Actually, I like the high camp better. That’s where we lived when I was little.”
“What’s the high camp?” Reina asked.
“You never saw it,” Tara replied. “It’s a little house up in the mountains. Compared to your home in the Felsite city, you would probably think it’s more of a shack, but I like it. I was comfortable there, and I remember my parents there when Taig and I first started running together. It’s more my home than the village will ever be.”
Reina started to say something when Tara spun around. She scanned the path behind them with flashing eyes, but she didn’t see anything. Reina looked, too. “What is it?”
Tara shook her head. “I heard something, but there’s nothing there.”
They started walking again, but they didn’t talk. The farther they traveled from Lycaon territory, the less they talked. Each person dwelt in his or her own thoughts. The boys walked closer together as they grew more familiar with each other, but they talked less than ever. Not even Taman and Allen talked the way they used to.
All of a sudden, Aeifa stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. Tara stared at her. “What did you hear?”
“Did you hear it, too?” Aeifa asked.
“I heard something. I don’t know what it was,” Tara told her.
Aeifa frowned. Then she started walking again. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe there’s some kind of animal in this territory we don’t know about.”
“Let’s ask Allen and Taman,” Tara suggested.
Tara snorted. “Are you kidding? They don’t know what kind of animals live in their territory, and they sure wouldn’t be able to identify their sounds if they did.”
Aeifa chuckled, but she didn’t laugh out loud the way she used to. Tara never saw her more serious before they left their home territory. She made up her mind not to look too closely, but when she did, she couldn’t help noticing the anxious lines in Aeifa’s face. Nothing bothered her before. Now she jumped at every sound.
They hurried to catch
up to the boys and walked with them for the rest of the morning until Taig jumped. He spun around on his heel. “What was that?”
“Did you hear that?” Tara asked. “We heard it before. What is it?”
Before anyone could answer, a cloud of dust rose over the hill behind them. The whole group stood still and stared as an untidy crowd of people and animals straggled over the prow of the hill and shuffled down the path toward them.
“Who are they?” Taig murmured.
No one answered. Tara had never seen people like this before. They had none of the features of any Angondran faction. They had no feathers like the Avitras or manes like the Felsite or fur like either the Ursidreans or the Lycaon. They had no recognizable features at all. If Tara hadn’t seen humans before, she would have thought they were from another planet. Then again, humans were from another planet. Maybe they were human. But they couldn’t be human. Tara couldn’t pinpoint exactly what made her sure of that, but she was sure of it. They were not human.
She couldn’t recognize their animals, either. They were nothing like the animals in Lycaon territory, or even the few new ones they’d seen in the mountains. The people herded before them small versions of rut ox, no bigger than the degrees of the Lycaon, and some larger, horned sort of creature with a flat face and large ears. Tara and her friends stared at the motley group until it came down the slope to where they stood.
These strange people swirled around the group. They urged their animals on waving sticks, and they smiled at Tara and her friends in a friendly way. Their clothing resembled dirty rags of leather and hand spun cloth. Their shuffling rag-wrapped feet raised clouds of dust from the ground.
When they approached the group, an old woman raised her stick and called out, “Come along!” She waved her hand toward the path leading into the valley between the mountain ranges.
Another, younger woman took up the call and beckoned the friends to follow. They swept the friends along with them to the north. Only Reina hung back. “We’re not going with them, are we?”
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 76