Wolfwalker—
“There, dammit,” one of them cursed. The third arrow slashed by her face, so close that the waxy leaf it cut in half also cut her skin.
Lupine fury burst into her mind. She drew her throwing knife and poised half turned, half crouched against the shadow.
Hunter lunged back to shove her out of the way as she made herself a target. Murton couldn’t not see him move. The chovas let fly just as Nori did. She didn’t miss, but neither did Murton. Her blade sank into Murton’s forearm as the man released, but his arrow ripped the top of Hunter’s shoulder. The Tamrani cried out and jerked back. Then Hunter reached out one long, muscled arm and threw Nori down like a sack. She hit hard enough to bruise her back. As she fell, she drew his second knife from the tooled sheath on his belt. She twisted. The blade flew after the second man like a thought. Murton dropped his bow and turned to run like a hare. The blade splintered through his quiver.
“Go,” the second man shouted. “Go!” The two men sprinted away.
Nori was nearly blinded by wolfish fury. She lunged to her knees when she was brought up short. The fingers that closed on her arm were made of steel. She wrenched free, but Hunter managed to catch her jerkin instead. “Dammit,” she cursed him, caught his wrist, and forced his fingers open. “They’ll get away.”
He managed to grab two of her fingers. “Are you insane?” he snapped back, twisting her knuckles so that she had to turn with him. “Stay down. They don’t want you now.”
“Enough to loose four bolts—” She didn’t even think as she wrist-locked his hand so that he was forced to let go.
“Four bolts at me, you idiot.” He jerked her down by her belt. “Let them go.”
“So they can shoot us again down the road?” Her broken bow, her scout book, Payne’s rope, and the war bolts in the wagon . . . The attack on the road was just a warm-up. They weren’t even bothering to be subtle anymore. She shoved back up, rolling her arm neatly free, only to find that he simply grabbed at her braid. She struck his elbow, hard enough to loosen his grip. “Let go, or I’ll skewer you like a shish kebab and roast you when I return.”
“You’ll go nowhere without me.”
“You’re bleeding, you bollusk-brained dimwit. You won’t make it ten meters, and they might go after Payne.”
He dug his fingers into her elbow to yank her back. She countered, shoved him back. “Moonwormed fool,” he cursed. “They aren’t after your brother or you. And they’re running hard. You’d never catch them. You can hear them on the road.”
“Murton’s one of them. He’s right there.” She yanked free. “Just there. He’s hit the hilltop.” Hunter grabbed the edge of her jerkin, then her braid again. She rolled his wrist so that he had to let go, but he grabbed her belt instead. “Dammit, Hunter. Let me go. They’re getting their dnu. I can still catch them both with Rishte.”
“There’s a third man, Black Wolf. There has to be. He’ll be the one with the dnu.”
“I don’t care,” she cried out. “They could go after Payne.”
“They’ll be down the road before you can shout.”
She jerked free. “Then I’ll get my own dnu. I have to make sure. They must not come back—”
He grabbed at her one more time. “All you’ll do is panic the camp and make it harder to catch them later. I know what they want. I’ll find them myself when they try to hit me again.”
She stopped struggling for an instant. She stared down at the wounded Tamrani. “What do you mean, when they try to hit you? They were after Payne and me.” Her hand itched for her scout book.
“You’re wrong. They were after me, not you.” He pressed his free hand hard against his shoulder, then jerked clumsily at a belt pouch.
“Oh, let me,” she snapped. She opened the pouch irritably and yanked out the roll of bandages. “You’re the one who’s mistaken. They were shooting at us, at Payne and me. Just like yesterday.” She jammed the pad into his hands. As he released her, she took a quick stride away.
Hunter reached out one long arm and yanked her back. “Listen carefully, you little idiot. They’re Harumen out of Sidisport, and if you think I’m going to let you go running after men like that in the dark, you’re crazy.”
“You’re blind, not just bloody. I know who they are. I saw the second one attack Connaught last night—” She broke off. His face had twisted as if the pain was increasing. She closed her eyes for a moment to regain control. Then she stopped fighting his grip. Even now, she heard the sense of running dnu in the back of her mind. She’d be the idiot he called her if she took off after them now. If Uncle Wakje found out, he’d thump her up one side of Ramaj Ariye, then back down through Randonnen. After her lack of control that afternoon, he’d be justified. But she was furious. She could feel the attackers running. She could feel her legs tense to chase. Rishte growled eagerly in her mind, and she wanted to growl with him. Instead, she jerked the bandage pad back from Hunter’s hand as he clumsily tried to fold it one-handed. It took her several seconds to realize that, beneath the lupine eagerness, something else lurked in her mind: fear. Now that she identified it, she could feel it breaking into her bones.
Was it that she knew who they were, or was it the scout book that had brought them down on her? Or was it the dead ring-runners she’d seen in the meadow? Or her sense of plague? It was the ring-runners who made it more than suspicious. She was swamped with the images of the bodies, and with it came the sense of the seep. Old death, burning death . . . Rishte howled, and she cursed silently.
She tried to clear her head, tried to think like her brother. She had to get back, get the scout book, get it off her person, hide it someplace better. Time must be important if they were willing to try for her twice in two days. The trigger point had been the night run, with the dead ring-runners and the raiders. Everything had started after that, after she’d gotten back to the road, when she’d finally returned to Payne. It had to be the ring-runners, not the seep, she told herself. It couldn’t be the plague. No raiders could know of that place near the cliff. The wagon track had been years old, and that area had become posted long ago for worlags in spring. On top of that, the seep would be dry through summer and fall, the times when hunters went through there. But the chill that settled deep in her bones had more to do with plague. “Could they know?” She wasn’t aware she had whispered out loud.
Hunter sucked in a breath as she pressed the bandage ungently onto the wound. “Know what?” he snapped. “That you’re a wolfwalker? That’s hardly grounds for murder.”
She snapped back to the moment. “You think they want you dead just for leaving the city?”
“They want what I brought out of it—”
“Oh, aye.” She rounded on him. “A hide so thick you can’t get a thought through your head. They’re trying to kill me, not you.”
“This is the most ridiculous argument I’ve ever had. Do you actually want to be right?”
“Look—”
“They want the papers I carry,” he snapped. “I’ve got four men and women, as well as my own sister, in the godsdamn hospital because of it.”
Nori stared at him. “You’ve lost too much blood,” she said with exasperation. She squatted beside him. She didn’t notice the leaves or twigs stuck in her braid or the damp mud stains on her shirt. He was far too adamant about being right, about being the target. But it had been her bow, her knife, Payne’s rope, and their arrows that had already been sabotaged. It had been Payne and she who were attacked on the road. And that raider had followed her out from the circle because she could identify him. Yet the Tamrani was still shaking his head as if he couldn’t see it. “You’re dizzy,” she worried. “It must be worse than it looks.”
“Dizzy, my foot.” He clutched her arm as she made to rise. “And stay down in the shadows. The third one may not have been with the dnu at all. He may be here in the park.”
“I’d know,” she returned sharply. She tried to hide the note of fear i
n her voice. “There’s no one left but us. And I suggest you get up with me, unless you want to bleed out on my boots.” His fingers were starting to drip as he held the pad to the wound. “How bad is it?” She pressed her hands over his to judge the heat in the blood.
“Ow, dammit. What are you doing?”
“Pressure. You have an open wound, you know.”
“By all nine hells, you’re supposed to be a healer.”
“An animal healer, not a human doctor.”
“You’re supposed to have a year of human healing.”
“It must not be my calling,” she retorted.
“Moons.” He sucked in his breath. “I’m likely to die from your touch long before I bleed to death on my own. I’d be better off as an animal than a human in your hands.”
She grinned, but the expression was feral. “I specialized in wild animals, not in livestock like dnu and ass.”
“Dik spit,” he retorted.
She studied the wound. It was slowly soaking both shirt and jerkin. The gnats were beginning to flock to the scent. “It’s messy more than deep. Tore the top, but doesn’t seem to have nicked anything important.”
“My body may not be important to you, but it certainly is to me.”
“Don’t be a baby. It’ll ruin the manly impression you’ve been making on me all night.”
He started to laugh and groaned. “Ow. Don’t make me laugh.”
“Seems like a good time for humor.”
“For you, maybe, not for me.”
“Then we’ll walk. Can you stand?”
He slanted her a look from under his heavy brows. “Will you put your arms around me if I can’t?”
“Now I know you’re fine.” She tugged at his elbow. His skin was cold with mud from the ground. “Come on, get up.”
“You have the bedside manner of a badgerbear.”
“I know. I practice hard.”
He started to laugh again, cursed, and settled for keeping his balance as he stumbled out of the root-mass. He slipped again, and she caught him, one hand around his waist.
She brushed awkwardly at them both, dislodging broken leaves and a twig from his shirt lacing. “It’s not far,” she encouraged.
He looked down at the top of her head. There was grass in her braid, and her cheek was smudged with his blood. But she was alive with adrenaline. Her violet eyes were sparkling, her body still balanced like a cat to strike. Her hand was like tinder, touching and firing the skin beneath his shirt as she slid along his ribs for a better hold. “Don’t patronize me,” he managed. “I’ve had worse wounds half the years of my life.”
But his voice sounded weak, and Nori slipped both arms around his muscled waist, returning lightly, “I wondered. You’re starting to look a bit hard-lived.”
He draped an arm around her shoulder and let her take some of his weight. She was stronger than she looked. She didn’t flinch at all. She simply fit her hips against him and adjusted her balance to his. Now her slim strength surrounded him, and her breasts pressed against his ribs. His hand clenched across her shoulder. She took it as a sign of pain and shifted to take more weight. She didn’t seem to notice the change in his breathing. He could hear the concern in her voice. “Did I ever tell you about the time I took an arrow in the ribs? It was an accident. One of the hunters was too impatient and didn’t wait for me to come back with the report on the herd. He thought I was an eerin. Shot me right through the shrubs.”
Her breasts rubbed his ribs as he walked, and Hunter felt himself growing hard. “What an idiot,” he managed.
“In more ways than one. He was too far away to do any damage. I felt the threat, turned around, and, pang, there was this arrow sticking out of my chest. It barely even cut the skin. Just left a tiny red mark, like the bite of a winter gnat.”
Their strides weren’t even, and her hips slid along his. “What’s with the sudden spate of talking?” he demanded in quiet desperation. “I thought you were the quiet one.”
Her voice was dry. “I was hoping to make sure you stay conscious. I didn’t want to try dragging you all the way back by myself to the cozar circle.”
He looked down at her face, noted the worry that tightened her eyes, and gave himself up to the soft sensation of her body locked against his.
He made it all the way to the path before he stumbled again, but this time he almost fell. She barely caught his weight, and it took him a moment to regain his balance. She paused only to pick up the bow the shooter had dropped and Hunter’s knife from beside the tree. She didn’t see her own blade. Either Murton or the other man had carried it away, or it was lost in the shadows. Unless Rishte wanted to scent it out, she’d have to wait till morning. She stared at the hilltop as she listened to the sense of the dnu fading away in the distance.
He followed her hungry gaze. “You wouldn’t have made it. They were already gone.”
“I could have left you behind.”
He grinned faintly. “You’d have felt too guilty.”
She made a face.
“You throw well,” Hunter commented as he rested against the trunk while she slung Murton’s bow over her shoulder.
“I’ve had some practice,” she returned noncommittally. She slipped her arms back around him and let him lean on her.
“Next time you think to put yourself in harm’s way just to take a shot for me, I’ll pin your arms behind you, truss you up like a roast pag, and beat that stupidity out of you. You’ll think your uncle’s hands are feathers compared to mine.”
His voice was so mild it didn’t register for a moment. Then she stopped dead. She stared at him as if he’d sprouted horns. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” He tightened his hold on her shoulder. “Jangharat,” he murmured. Then he turned her into his arms and kissed her.
She stared up at him as he did it. In the dark, her violet eyes flickered with sudden fear. Like a wild animal, she tore free and jerked back.
He thought he was prepared for her reaction, but he overbalanced. This time, she didn’t try to catch him. He grabbed for a nearby sapling and stood for a moment, head down and cursing, as he got used to the new jags of pain. Finally looked back up.
She stood several steps back, breathing raggedly, her hand at her lips, watching him like a wolf.
In spite of himself, his voice was somewhat hoarse. “I won’t apologize.”
She dropped her hands and found her voice. “I didn’t ask you to.”
He straightened. He nodded at the trail. “Shall we?”
“You first.”
He understood, and it angered him. If the shooters returned, they’d be behind them, and Nori would be first in danger. “Side by side or not at all.”
She stared at him, but he didn’t move.
“Together, Nori. I won’t bite.”
She licked her lips unconsciously. “What did you call that?”
He smiled, slowly, wickedly. “An introduction.”
“Then you’ll need no other.”
“Now that’s the arrogance I admire.” He nodded toward the path. Reluctantly, she fell into step with him, certain now that he’d been faking his weakness. She cast glances every now and then at his face. It was tight, so she knew he was in pain, but other than holding the bandage to the wound, he seemed to not notice his shoulder. He’d had that bandage ready in his belt, she remembered. He hadn’t argued when they left the path for the shadows, he’d been prepared for the raiders, and he’d thrown her around with ease. Oh, Payne had been right about this one. Cityfolk this Tamrani might be, but he wasn’t at all a novice. She’d underestimated him badly. The thought was disconcerting.
Uncle Ki was at fireside, and Nori left Hunter on the gate of the healer’s wagon to go get her uncle. She waited till she caught his eye, then raised her eyebrow meaningfully. Several faces turned to her, and there was more than speculation on some of them as they took in her dirty shirt and grass-stained trousers, the red-brown smudge that marred her c
heek. Ki rose with sudden menace as he scanned the night for the Tamrani. “Get Payne,” he murmured to his younger son. Liam nodded and strode away.
She said quickly, “It’s not what it looks like, Uncle Ki.”
The ex-raider nodded, but he didn’t stop scanning the circle as he followed her away from the fire.
Nori barely waited till they had some distance. “He’s hurt, Uncle Ki. He was shot. He’s at the healer’s wagon.”
Ki’s step didn’t falter as he shot her a sharp look. “On the road? You raised no alarm. Report.”
“It was Murton and the man who hit Connaught last night. They followed us—probably me—into the verge park. There was a third man in the distance, probably holding the dnu for them to escape.”
“But it was the Tamrani who was shot?”
“By mistake, I think. Payne spoke to you?” He nodded, and she explained, “No other attack has been aimed at him. It’s all been aimed at us.”
They rounded the corner of the healer’s wagon and could hear Hunter now.
“. . . no reason to cut up this jerkin. It’s the last one I have.”
Nori felt a twinge of guilt.
But, “Put your arms down,” the healer snapped. “Don’t you realize how much you’re bleeding?”
“I can judge that myself quite accurately. Let me get this off, dammit, before you leave me in cozar rags.”
“Do you want my help or not?”
“He wants it, Healer Sastry.” Nori cut off his reply as she stepped up. “He’ll follow directions.”
Hunter looked over. “Speak for yourself,” he retorted.
Ki looked the other man up and down, and Nori wasn’t sure her uncle had believed her till he saw that Hunter was more preoccupied with the healer’s hands than Nori’s. “Shallow wound,” Ki judged. “Messy.”
Hunter indicated Nori irritably. “That’s what she said.” Ignoring the healer, he yanked the jerkin over his head, sucking in his breath as it pulled across the wound with more agony than he had expected. Silently, he finished the motion. Nori caught the soiled garment before he could drop it. “Did you tell him?” he asked, jerking his chin toward Ki.
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