“Of course,” Karliss said. “We were only helping you do it before there was nothing left to share.”
╬ ╬ ╬
That night they heard the wolves for the first time, howling in the distance. Batu got a worried look on his face and added a couple more pieces of wood to the fire, jerking his hand back and sucking on the ball of his thumb as he stuck himself with one of the thorns that covered the wood.
“Finally go somewhere with wood enough to burn, and it has to be covered in thorns,” he complained. “And it doesn’t even burn very good.”
“Still better than collecting manure, isn’t it?” Hulagu asked. Every Sertithian child grew up carrying dried manure for the fire. Wood was too scarce on the steppes to waste it by burning it.
Batu looked ruefully at his thumb, which was still oozing blood. “At least manure doesn’t stab you.”
Hulagu brought the horses in closer and tied them to shrubs right next to the fire. The horses stood there staring off into the darkness, their ears pricked up.
The next day they saw the wolves. Only two at first, slinking along a few hundred yards behind them. They were skinny, their ribs showing clearly. Their fur was so dark they were almost black, and they were smaller than the wolves they were used to seeing on the steppes.
“They’re skinny enough to be desperate,” Hulagu observed.
“You think so?” Batu said nervously.
“I don’t think they’ll attack us in the daylight, but after dark…”
Batu swallowed visibly and reached into his pocket. He scowled when he realized there was no longer anything to eat in there.
Late that afternoon they were riding up the bottom of a steep-sided gully carved through crumbling granite. The bottom was rocky, with nothing growing in it. The only plants growing on the sides of the gully were stunted clumps of thorns.
“Up there,” Hulagu said in a low voice, gesturing with his chin.
Karliss looked up and saw that on both sides of the gully wolves were lined up, probably a dozen in all. The wolves were staring at them with yellow, unblinking eyes. Batu, who’d been riding with his bow strung and an arrow nocked for the past couple of hours, let fly. But he shot too quickly and the arrow missed completely. As one the wolves ducked out of sight.
“I hate wolves,” Batu grumbled. “I always have.”
“You shouldn’t have fired,” Hulagu said. “Now we have to find a way out of this gully so we can fetch the arrow.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if I’d hit one.”
“You’re getting too worked up. I told you, they won’t attack us during the day.”
“But there’s nothing wrong with evening the odds a bit, is there?”
That night they gathered as much wood as they could and built the fire up larger. They kept the horses close and ate their meager meal looking constantly over their shoulders. The wolves howled. They sounded a lot closer than they did the night before.
“I’ve always been afraid of wolves,” Batu admitted after a fresh round of howling, seemingly just out of the firelight. “Ever since I was a little kid. I don’t know why. There’s something about them that gets to me.” He hung his head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Why?” Hulagu asked.
“Because you guys aren’t afraid of anything. You must think I’m nothing but a baby.”
“Well, that’s not true at all,” Hulagu said.
“Nope,” Karliss said. “I’m afraid of lots of things.” He thought of all the nights he’d laid awake, fearing Kasai and what he would do next.
“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid,” Hulagu said, “so long as it doesn’t stop you from doing what needs to be done. And I know when the time comes that we can count on you.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Batu said mournfully.
“I was there when you stabbed Kasai’s captain in the back,” Hulagu replied. “Don’t tell me you weren’t afraid then.”
“I was so frightened I could barely breathe,” Batu said. “But I sort of forgot, I guess. I was even more afraid that he was going to kill you, Karliss.” He took a bite of his food and chewed slowly. “I think that’s why I eat so much. I don’t feel so afraid when I eat. Anyway, I’m sorry about hiding food from you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s okay,” Karliss said. “It wasn’t hidden as well as you think it was.”
“Yeah, we both knew all along,” Hulagu added with a chuckle.
They slept with their horses’ reins in one hand and a weapon in the other. Hulagu took the first watch. He settled himself against a rock and laid the big tulwar across his knees.
Karliss thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he was so exhausted that he fell asleep quickly. He was awakened some time later by a commotion. He jumped up, still bleary-eyed, and at first he couldn’t make out what was happening. In the dim light of the nearly-dead fire it looked like Hulagu was wrestling with a fur blanket. Then he blinked and realized what it was.
A handful of wolves were clustered around Hulagu, leaping and snapping at him. He had the big tulwar in his hand and was struggling to swing it, but they were too thick, too close to him, and he couldn’t do much besides keep them off him. It wouldn’t be long before they got through, though.
Batu sprang up, spear in hand, and flung himself into the fray, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did so. One of the wolves yelped as the spear pierced its side and the momentum of his charge cleared enough space that Hulagu finally got a good swing with his blade. Another wolf went down, yelping, a huge cut in its side.
Karliss called the wind to him and felt it respond, but he hesitated, not sure if he could use it. His friends and the wolves were packed too closely together. Any attack he mounted was as likely to injure them as the wolves.
Then a wolf came out of the shadows and leapt at Karliss from the side. He turned, channeling a strong blast as he did so. The wolf was knocked backwards, tumbling head over heels, and disappeared from sight.
Batu pulled his spear out of the dying wolf and stabbed another through the neck. The animal went down snapping wildly at the shaft. Batu kicked it off his spear and barely had time to use the butt of the spear to deflect the next charging animal. The wolf’s jaws snapped on thin air, but another was already leaping for Batu’s throat. Batu fell back and threw up the spear. The wolf’s powerful jaws snapped on the wooden haft, only inches from Batu’s throat. They went down in a tangle.
But he’d bought Hulagu the space he needed and now the tulwar was doing its deadly work. Hulagu swung it side to side in mighty sweeps, like a farmer scything wheat. Wolves went down howling with each swing.
Now that the wolves had pulled back, Karliss had targets to choose from. He hit two with a strong blast of air that sent them rolling away yelping. One leapt at Hulagu’s back, but Karliss saw it in time and swatted it aside with another blast of wind.
All of a sudden it was over. The wolves melted away except for those that were already dead. Two with serious injuries were whining, trying to crawl away.
Batu had a scratch on the side of his face. Hulagu had a bite on his arm. Other than that they had no injuries. Hulagu walked over to the two injured wolves and finished them off quickly. He stood over them, his head bowed. Then he started picking up carcasses and carrying them off into the darkness. Batu and Karliss collected the horses and calmed them down.
“I don’t think we’ll have any more trouble with them tonight,” Karliss said. “We hurt them pretty badly.”
“You see how skinny they are,” Hulagu said as he picked up a couple more to haul away. “Poor animals. They’re starving is all.”
“I’m glad they’re still starving,” Batu said with a shudder. “If they weren’t, that would mean they were eating us right now.”
Chapter Fifteen
The next day the countryside grew steeper and rockier as they began to ascend the lower slopes of the mountains. The mountains loomed over the
m now, blocking out the horizon, awe-inspiring in their bulk, clouds periodically wreathing the highest peaks. It was still hard for the companions to grasp the sheer enormity of them. They were like the bones of the world. The peaks seemed to be almost completely rock, devoid of growing things.
The cactus faded away and was replaced by short, twisted trees with sharp-edged leaves. The gullies had water in them now, sparse streams with bitter-tasting water. They were stopped by a small pool, letting the horses drink, when Hulagu saw the track in a patch of mud beside the stream.
“Look at this,” he said, dismounting and squatting down to look at it.
“There are people living up here?” Batu asked, looking around nervously.
“Looks like it,” Karliss said.
“But barefoot?” Batu said. “How primitive are these people?”
Hulagu was scanning the nearby ridges, his hand on his sword. The tulwar was strapped to his saddle, too cumbersome for carrying around. “They could be watching us right now.”
“Great,” Batu said. “Why couldn’t the cave Unegen found have been down on the steppes, maybe by a nice lake filled with fat fish? Why did it have to be up here?”
“No caves on the steppes,” Hulagu said somberly. “We need to stay ready. We don’t know how many of them there are, or if they are hostile.”
“If they’re as skinny as the wolves, then they’re definitely hostile,” Batu said. “They probably want to eat us too, especially me. I have the most meat on my bones.”
“Maybe you should ride in front,” Hulagu said.
“You’re hilarious,” Batu replied. “Why don’t you go first and I’ll stay behind you? You’re so big, they probably won’t even notice me.”
Karliss only half listened to them. He was watching the ridgetops. There were clumps of the stunted trees, rock outcroppings, sudden defiles. Enemies could be hiding in any of them. There were plenty of places to stage an ambush.
“I’m going to go take a look around,” he said.
He got off his horse, sat down and crossed his legs. He closed his eyes and lowered his mental barriers. He whistled. It wasn’t long before an aranti came racing by, as eager as a puppy. As it blew through him, he grabbed onto it. They shot up into the sky. He nudged the aranti, turning the creature, slowing the headlong pace so he could see more clearly. They flew in circles, each circle larger than the one before, while Karliss watched the landscape below. He saw no sign of whatever people had left the track. Which either meant they were gone now, or they were very good at hiding.
A minute later he returned to his body and opened his eyes.
“Did you see anything?” Hulagu asked.
Karliss shook his head and stood up. “We keep going. Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
“I wish I believed that,” Batu said.
They rode unmolested through the morning and into the afternoon. The day was gray, with ragged clouds racing overhead. Rain sprinkled on them periodically. The wind shook the stunted trees and moaned through the rocks. The only living things they saw the whole time were a pair of jays that scolded them for their presence. They found only meager, yellowed grass for their mounts to feed on.
“Up close like this, none of the peaks look anything like eagles,” Batu said. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to find this cave.”
“Tomorrow morning I’ll go scout again,” Karliss said. He’d looked several times already but hadn’t found anything promising.
“I hope you find something this time,” Batu said. “I hope this isn’t all a waste of time.”
“It was always a long shot,” Hulagu reminded him.
Karliss didn’t reply. He was starting to have real doubts that they would ever find the same cave Unegen did. After all this time it could have been buried in a landslide. These might not even be the right mountains.
“At first I thought that these mountains were fascinating. I couldn’t wait to see them up close. Now I only want to leave. Who knew it would be this hard to get around in them? I haven’t seen a piece of flat land bigger than a blanket in days.” Batu said. Several times they’d dismounted and walked up the steeper slopes, trying to save the horses’ strength. “I hope—”
“Look,” Hulagu said, pointing.
In the distance, on a ridgetop, were three figures, staring down at them. They were well out of bowshot, too far away to see them very clearly. It looked like they were wearing animal skins. Or maybe they were part animal, Karliss thought. Anything seemed possible in this strange country. The figures weren’t moving. The three companions stopped.
“I guess it would be too much to hope they are only here to invite us to eat with them,” Batu said. “Share a nice rabbit stew, maybe.”
“You want to ride over and ask them?” Hulagu said.
“Maybe later.”
Hulagu raised a hand and waved at them. Still they didn’t move.
Finally, the three companions continued on. The trail they were following took them at an angle so that they veered away from the watching figures. When Karliss looked up again, they were gone.
“I think it would be best if we built no fire tonight,” Hulagu said, when they stopped to camp near dark at the base of a small cliff. “They probably know where we are, but there’s no sense in lighting a beacon to draw them in.”
“Maybe the wolves will eat us before they get a chance to,” Batu said gloomily. “There’s that to hope for.”
“I’m going to take another look around,” Karliss said, and summoned an aranti. But again there was nothing to see. He allowed himself to hope that the people they’d seen would leave them alone. Hulagu said nothing when he voiced this. Batu shook his head and muttered under his breath.
They sat in growing darkness eating. Each one only got a thin strip of jerky and a small piece of flatbread. “If they wait too long, there won’t be enough of me left to be worth eating,” Batu said, chewing his food slowly. “I’ll be nothing but bones and skin.”
“Don’t worry,” Hulagu said. “You have a ways to go before that happens.”
“Why don’t you tell us about Sube,” Karliss said. “That will take your mind off being eaten.”
Batu gave them a suspicious look. “I don’t feel like being teased about it.”
“I won’t tease you,” Karliss said. He looked at Hulagu. “How about you?” Hulagu shook his head. He looked back at Batu. “Do you like her?”
Batu shrugged. “I don’t know. I think so. I know I like the food she makes for me, but other than that… She laughs at my jokes. I like that. And she has a nice smile. I never noticed it before. Actually, I never really noticed her before.”
“Clearly she noticed you,” Karliss said.
“She’s always telling me how great I am, what a hero I am,” Batu said. “Which I like. It’s better than being teased for being fat. But it also makes me feel weird. I’m not a hero. I know I helped when that man with the burning eyes attacked the camp, but that was just…I don’t know. Something I did because I was there and I didn’t want him to hurt you, Karliss. That’s a long ways from being a hero.”
“Maybe it’s not,” Hulagu said. “Maybe that’s exactly what being a hero is.”
“It wouldn’t make a very good song,” Batu said, “some guy who was just there.”
“They’ll just have to make up a few things to spice it up,” Karliss said. “Which is probably what they do anyway when they come up with those songs.”
“Did you kiss her yet?” Hulagu asked.
“Oh, come on!” Batu protested. “You said you wouldn’t tease me!”
“So, no,” Hulagu said, a wicked grin on his face.
“We’re not there yet,” Batu said.
“Do you want to kiss her?” Karliss asked.
“Can we talk about something else?”
Karliss and Hulagu laughed. It felt good to laugh. Karliss didn’t get to laugh that much anymore. Everything always seemed so serious all the time. He grieved for
how things used to be, when he laughed all the time, and the world seemed like so much fun.
They sat there in darkness for a while. Small sounds came from the horses. Far in the distance came the howl of a wolf. Something small zigzagged overhead, probably a bat. The mountains loomed over them, dark and jagged.
╬ ╬ ╬
In the morning Hulagu found tracks when he walked away to relieve himself. He called the others over to see. There were tracks from two different people, both of them barefoot. They were only a couple dozen paces away from the camp.
“I didn’t fall asleep during my watch,” Batu said.
“Obviously, they’re good at hiding,” Karliss said. “Good at moving quietly too.”
“Why didn’t they attack us?” Batu asked.
“Maybe they’re just curious,” Hulagu suggested.
Karliss summoned an aranti and went looking for the eagle-shaped peak again. Once again he found no sign of the peak, but he did find an elevated valley high in the heart of the mountains. The valley had a small pond in it, a good stand of trees, and quite a bit of grass. The problem was, he didn’t see any way to get into the valley. It was surrounded by sharp, rocky ridges and unscalable peaks. However, as he was heading back to the camp, he saw a narrow defile leading into the valley. It was little more than a crack, but it looked wide enough to get the horses through. When he got back he told the others about it.
“So you want to go even higher?” Batu asked, looking up at the peaks. “Why? What makes you think the cave is up there? It could be somewhere down here you know.”
“I know,” Karliss admitted. “But I have this feeling it’s up in that valley. There’s something about the place that draws me. It feels familiar somehow.”
“From what you described, there should be game up there,” Hulagu said. “And you said there is grass for the horses. At the least we could rest and give the horses a chance to recover.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Batu grumbled, heading for his horse. Under his breath he said, “Who knew mountains could be so big?”
The climbed stiffly onto their horses. They’d already gained quite a bit of elevation and since the sun wasn’t up yet it was cold. Their breath steamed in front of their faces. The horses picked their way slowly through the rocks. Karliss was worried about the horses. All of them were footsore. They hadn’t been getting enough to eat and they were tired from the constant use. They would need the horses if they had to make a run for it. The horses were the one advantage they had over whoever it was who was watching them.
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 20