Nord shook his head. “No. Outside of healers, I’ve never found anyone that knew the name Della. Last night you said you knew how to make the cure. Why would I go back and beg for the antidote?”
“There’s not the time to get what you need. Not before it’s too late.”
Nord still shook his head. His sunken eyes looked especially haunted in the rising sunlight. “Already too late. Didn’t take the last job. There’s no way I can get back in time and get the job done. Even if I tried, there is no guarantee that I can get the antidote. If you knew this man, you’d understand.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking. I likely knew Orly better than he did. How many times had I worked with him over the years? Lately, he’d taken to testing me, thinking to discover my weakness, and because of that, he’d saved us. I doubted he’d do the same for Nord, especially if he’d refused a job.
“We’re going to have to move fast,” I said. If this worked—and there was no telling whether I could find the necessary ingredients—then we had to hurry along the road.
“There is another option,” Cael said softly.
I felt her working through my mind. It was no more than a sense of a breeze, but now that I knew what it was, she couldn’t hide her presence. With a force of effort, I slammed up the barriers in my mind, preventing her from digging through my memories.
“No. There is not,” I said. No matter what she thought, I would not be the one to bring attention to Della. “We should go.”
Nord took a long look at Thayer. We left the fire crackling softly, little more than coals, but enough that it would keep him warm were he immobilized for much longer. With terad, the body cools as well, so the fire would help. Regardless, he would be stiff and slow when he finally came around.
I still considered dosing him again.
Starting off the road, I veered toward the south. The road we had been traveling on led southwest, and if we were to hurry, we needed to take a more direct route. The terrain changed rapidly as we left the road, going from relatively flat and smooth, a few trees dotting the plains that were otherwise just a vast expanse of grass to more sloping hills. The distant mountains in the north and to the west stuck out like smudges of darkness against the horizon, a few pale clouds smeared around their peaks. The air was stale and still. The sun climbed overhead, still not hot but growing warmer the farther we walked.
Cael wore a slight smile on her face as we moved, as if this was all some sort of adventure. Nord heaved, his breaths slow and ragged, each step seeming harder than the last, especially as we scrambled down a long rock wall toward the flat valley below. Given his size and the lingering effects of the bakka working through his system, I was not entirely surprised.
I moved relatively easily. My leather cloak hung heavily on my shoulders. The longer we walked, the more tempted I was to remove it. The heat of the sun made wearing it almost unbearable, but I didn’t feel comfortable without it. Especially since it had nearly saved my life when I rescued Cael from Lorst. The knife wound in my side still ached. Occasionally it would flare with pain, a reminder of the srirach that had tipped the blade.
We reached the bottom of the rocky valley. A wide stream wound through here. We would follow the stream until we reached the Yiln. There we would wander until we found dried bakka. I was leery of the plan, knowing that if it didn’t work, we could all end up as poisoned as Nord.
Cael looked back at me as we reached the water. I nodded and she leaned in and took a long drink. Nord hesitated. After his experience with the bakka, I was not surprised. Any water was potentially dangerous. Were there even traces in the stream, it would accelerate the poisoning. I wondered if he knew.
Nord seemed to consider before pulling a small skin out from beneath his cloak and taking a sip. He wiped the sickly sheen of sweat off his face and then returned the skin to its hiding place beneath his cloak.
“You should drink,” Cael said. It was not a command—no power infused her voice, or he would have been compelled to drink.
Nord shook his head. Strings of his greasy hair fluttered across his face. Sallow jowls of flesh jiggled beneath his chin. “No, sure it’s safe. Prefer to trust what I brought with me,” he answered.
She turned to me. “Am I—”
“Fine,” I told her. “You and I can drink this water without worry.” I paused and took a drink to demonstrate. Even knowing I was safe, after seeing what had happened to Nord, I couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. “Nord’s fears are not unfounded. Bakka grow naturally along many streams. Most are harmless, leaving traces only in the water—nothing that would lead to the toxicity he has experienced. That takes a concerted effort. An intentional attempt to poison. But even the traces in the water can add to what has already happened to him. Might speed along the poisoning.”
Nord nodded. “Learned the hard way,” he said. “Almost didn’t make it back in time. Job wasn’t quite done. Didn’t think I would get to the antidote in time. Now I make sure to have enough water in my skin at all times.”
“How do you refill your skin?” she asked.
Nord looked at the stream with a strange expression. “Certain streams are safe.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“I know.”
I wondered about the answer. Was it something Orly had told him? Another way to keep him tied to Eban, held close so that he couldn’t wander too far afield, or was there another reason? I doubted that Orly did anything for reason other than profit. I had far too much experience with Orly to believe otherwise.
Cael glanced at the water and took another tentative sip. I saw the look on her face as she tasted it, trying to decide if anything seemed off. Finally, she stood. “Where now?” she asked.
The question was for Nord’s benefit. I had already made sure she could Read what I had planned. At least there was some benefit to her being able to Read. If only it worked both ways and she could send her thoughts to me. Something like that had happened with her once, but I knew it took a great force of will and more effort than she needed to expend.
“We follow this stream. All these streams eventually reach the Yiln.”
“You want to find more bakka trees?” Nord asked. His voice was suspicious and worried.
“Dried ones only. There is something about the trees that affects the water supply. They pull all the moisture out of the surrounding land and then the trees go dormant. Those are the trees we need to find. Nothing dangerous about them.”
I didn’t figure he needed to know where the danger in the plan was just yet. If he survived—and there still wasn’t a guarantee that he would live through the journey—then he would see for himself.
“And then?” Nord asked.
“Then we go our separate ways,” I said. Already I was eager to see the last of him, letting him return to Eban or wherever he wanted to go, any way I could get away from Orly completely. Having even this slight connection to Orly made me uncomfortable. I knew that I would always be looking over my shoulder, wondering when one of his men might find me.
Thankfully, Cael nodded.
“But not before?” Nord asked.
“No.”
11
We moved on, following the stream. By midday, the sun was up and hot, burning on the back of my neck. Nord struggled, moving slower the farther we walked. Cael followed close to me, knowing or Reading that I wanted to make sure that she stayed nearby. We both let Nord trail us. Part of me wondered if that was wise, but hearing him wheezing distantly behind us left me somewhat reassured.
“Do you know when we might find the trees?” Cael asked during the afternoon.
Thin clouds drifting across the sky were nothing like the heavy, dark clouds I saw so commonly in Eban. The air was crisp, scented with the soft hint of decaying leaves and the water of the stream. A soft breeze fluttered at my cloak, but not enough to cool me. We made our way along the stream’s edge, following it south as it meandered through the countryside. Tre
es lined either side but quickly disappeared, leaving a flat expanse of dried brown grasses rolling away from the stream. The only green that existed was around the water.
“Not entirely,” I said. “We’ll have to move away from the stream eventually. We need dormant trees, the kind not found near water.”
“Why dormant?” she asked.
I shook my head. “There is something to the bark that can help.”
“Just the bark?” she asked. The tone of her voice let me know that she had Read more from me but not enough to understand.
“Not just the bark. It is a base for what we need. By itself, the bark is useless, mostly. Some chew it. I’ve seen men hallucinate after chewing on dried bakka bark, but most do it because it is thought to be medicinal.”
“But it’s not.”
I shrugged. “Who’s to say? There are some who would think this stream is medicinal.”
A smile quirked her lips. “Who indeed?” she said.
With that, I knew what she was thinking. I didn’t need to be a Reader to know that she wanted to know more about Della. My determination to keep my secret only increased Cael’s interest. At least I could still hide some things from her. Everyone had secrets they didn’t want to share. Especially me.
As we walked, I scanned the horizon, looking for signs of dormant trees. Dormant bakka existed in dry beds, areas where water had once been prominent but had long since disappeared. Some suspected the bakka trees themselves led to streams drying out, pulling the moisture out of the stream as they grew, storing it within their deep roots, until nothing but dry soil remained. And then the trees went dormant, their trunks changing and graying, leaves drying out but never falling off. As far as I knew, no bakka tree dropped completely, never falling over like so many other trees that existed in other forests, places like the Aisl.
My mentor Isander suspected there was something else to the bakka trees, something that none had ever learned. Not that he claimed to know, only that even the dormant trees seemed to have something quite alive about them. It was this quality that Isander suspected lent itself to the healing properties of the antidote. Even that probably worked differently than what I knew.
Finally, in the distance, I saw a small trail along the stream, etching the dry soil, leaving a recessed dry rivulet. “There,” I said, pointing for Cael as we neared.
She looked, not seeing what it was that I saw. As one of the Elvraeth, she was gifted with all of the abilities, Sight among them, though some manifested more strongly than others. While she was Sighted, she was not strongly so, nothing like what I possessed.
“The trail?” she asked.
I pointed to where the trail seemed to lead off the stream we followed. “Not always a trail,” I said. “This was once a stream like this. Perhaps the same stream, only routed differently.” That was a possibility I had not considered before. Could the bakka trees be used to change the direction of the water? If so, such knowledge could be valuable. And dangerous.
Cael’s eyes widened as she Read me. “What now?” she asked.
Nord reached us. I heard his labored breathing and glanced back. Sweat moistened his brow and he leaned forward on his legs to catch his breath. His eyes stayed half open as he panted. A foul odor, partially hidden by his cloak, emanated from him.
He saw me watching him. “I’m okay,” he said. To prove it, he pulled out his water skin, the odor wafting out from under his cloak as he did, and took a long draw of water. It seemed to refresh him and he stood, stuffing the skin away, his eyes clearing.
“We need to follow this trail,” I said.
“How much longer?” Nord asked.
“As long as it takes,” I answered.
Nord only nodded.
Cael and I took another long drink from the stream before leaving the water. I tried to deny the fact that I tasted something bitter in the water, something that made my tongue tingle, but even I could not ignore what I tasted. I recognized the taste; working with Isander, he made sure that I could identify all potential poisons by taste and smell. I did not know why I should taste it so strongly.
Cael looked up at me. As gifted as she was, she would have even a stronger sense of smell and taste. I nodded once. Still safe. Probably. But—I wondered how much longer it would remain so. If this stream changed, poisoned by the effect of bakka trees that we had not yet seen, what would happen to the villages that depended on it for water?
We left the stream and the cover of trees. As we moved away toward the open plains, I didn’t care for how exposed we were. I prepared a few darts as we walked, making sure that I would be prepared for whatever we might encounter. I tucked the readied darts into small pockets along my waist. Once readied, I felt more comfortable just knowing that I wouldn’t be unprepared.
Flat plains stretched in front of us, dropping off far on the horizon. No trees interrupted the trail. The air was hotter as we moved away from the water, though that might have been lack of shade more than anything. The breeze had died and sweat poured off me. Without a skin like Nord had, Cael and I would dehydrate quickly. I scanned the plain, looking for signs of greenery and life, but saw nothing but brown and dried grasses.
We would have needed to pass this way eventually, but were it not for the desire to help Nord, we would have followed the stream until it reached deeper in the Aisl Forest. Now… now we would be thirsty.
Overhead, clouds circled lazily. Nothing else moved. That worried me.
It wasn’t until nearly dusk when I first saw signs that we were followed.
Far behind us, back near the stream, there was movement. From this distance, I could not make out who or what it was that moved, only that it seemed to be trailing us rather than continuing along the more sensible route and following the stream. Out here, this far away from any other villages, nothing but dry brown ground and grass around us, there was little reason to wander across the plains. I suspected that if we walked far enough, we would eventually reach one of the larger cities in the south, but this was not the way most would take. With nothing here, the way would prove too isolated and dangerous.
Cael looked back, straining to see anything along the dark smear that was the last of the green life the stream ran through. She looked at me when she saw nothing.
“Not him,” I said. She relaxed a little with the words.
Whoever followed us, it was not Lorst. He was the only assassin I knew to fear. Any others would have to follow us into the open where we could see them.
We pressed on. With Nord, we moved more slowly than I liked, and those following us gradually began gaining ground. As they neared, I saw three racing toward us, riding horses. Each was dressed in light travel cloaks. One carried a long bow slung over his shoulder. The others were armed with short swords strapped to their saddles. I saw one crossbow as well. Not as dangerous from a distance—the crossbows favored in Eban were far too inaccurate to harm us from a distance—but quite deadly up close. On horseback, it would not be long before they reached us.
I reached for the darts and started preparing a few more. I would have to stop them.
“We should stay together,” Cael said.
I shook my head. She disliked the idea of killing, but I recognized that there was a time and a need for it. Some men simply needed to die.
“One has a crossbow. The other has a longbow.” It was the longbow I feared. In the hands of the right archer, it was deadly accurate. Much closer and we would be easy targets. There were a few men in Eban with enough skill with the bow, sharp shooters who earned almost as much as I did for their skills.
Nord looked back. “Someone follows us?” he asked. “How would they know we were here?”
Did I tell Nord that he probably wasn’t the target? He just had the unfortunate luck of falling in with us when Orly had put a price on our heads that would draw all the men from Eban—and some from well outside the city as well—after us.
“At least three,” I said. “Mounted and moving
fast.”
“Are you sure they are after us?” Nord asked.
I turned and looked at the empty expanse around us. “Pretty sure,” I said.
“We can’t outrun them.”
“No. You will go ahead. Cael will keep you safe.”
“You’re leaving us?” Nord asked. He looked from Cael to me. “You’re leaving her with me? Aren’t you supposed to keep her safe?”
“That’s why I’m leaving,” I said. I glanced at the sky. The sun was falling and was bright in my eyes. That would provide some cover as I approached. Not much, but it might be enough. “Once I take care of them, I’ll return.” I turned to Cael, ignoring the look on Nord’s face. He wondered how I would take care of three riders by myself. I was glad neither would be with me to watch. “Make certain he stays upright. Don’t let him get too close to you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nord open and then close his mouth. Cael’s smile never faltered. Again I wished I could Read her as she Read me.
“Follow the old streambed,” I said. “If you reach the bakka trees, wait for me there. Don’t try to do anything with them.” I needed as much bark as I could find. That, and I wasn’t sure if there was another way to use the trees.
Cael nodded and pointed forward. Nord followed, glancing back at me as they slowly ambled along the dried streambed.
I took a deep breath and patted the prepared darts beneath my cloak. Once satisfied they were there, I checked to make sure that the knives I had were still in place and ready to grab. Everything needed to be ready. Had I doubted Cael’s ability to Read and possibly Compel Nord, I would have diluted terad and poisoned him while I was gone, just to be safe.
Keeping low, I moved back along the streambed until I was certain that Cael and Nord were far enough away, and then cut off across the plain. The grasses were dry and coarse and crunched under my feet, sending puffs of dust up into my nostrils with each step. My heavy cloak helped conceal me, but I knew that if any of the riders had decent vision, I would be seen. Already I knew one carried a bow; as such, he likely had good eyesight.
The Forgotten (The Sighted Assassin Book 2) Page 8