“I was getting to it.”
“They got off four shots—” the tall man hissed as Healer Sastry rubbed a numbing agent around the wound.
“Four?” Ki glanced at Nori, then hard back at Hunter.
“The fault wasn’t his, Uncle Ki. He was preoccupied.” Her voice bit. “He kept trying to shove my face through the ground.”
“I was trying to protect you,” he snapped. He met Ki’s gaze with more than a lick of anger. “She kept trying to jump up and attack. I couldn’t let her get hit for me.” His jaw tightened ominously as the healer began to pinch the staples closed over the wound, and Nori knew the painkiller hadn’t fully set.
She said sharply, “He was aiming for me, not you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The attack earlier was aimed at Payne and me. The accidents before then, at Payne and me. Why would they now follow you?”
“Because of you, Wolfwa—woman,” he blasted back, barely correcting himself in time. “Because they don’t want me meeting up with you. I carry information for the council. Information that, combined with a scout’s notes, could help answer important questions. They can’t afford for me to work with you.”
There was silence for a long, strained moment. The healer continued to clean the wound, his ears closed to the discussion in the cozar way of distancing himself from things he should not hear. Hunter glared at Nori and watched the emotions flicker deep in her eyes. Distrust, wariness, puzzlement, and fear. He wasn’t sure which had won out when she said quietly, “We’ve always been targets of some sort.”
He stared at her, then hissed at Sastry when the healer pulled at his arm. “Dammit,” he cursed. “You’re worse than she is.” The healer hid a smile. Hunter shot Ki a wary look, then spoke to Nori as if the others weren’t there. “I can’t tell you more, not until I know.”
The wolfwalker’s violet eyes narrowed. “Until you know what?”
He said harshly, “That you will do your duty to the county, not run from it like you have been doing ever since you turned sixteen.”
Her face went expressionless.
Ki studied Hunter carefully. When he spoke, his voice was soft. “You’ve dragged my Nori-girl into your business, Tamrani. You’ve made her a target for your back.”
Hunter glanced at Ki, then gave the older man a closer look. The ex-raider’s face was still calm, but it gave him a chill. “I have,” he admitted freely. “And if she’ll ride with me—on Journey, as a duty, I don’t care—I’ll keep her as safe as I can while we deal with the changes coming to Ariye.”
Nori felt a lick of anger. “I don’t need you to kee—”
Ki cut her off with an almost imperceptible gesture. He gave the Tamrani a long look before turning back to Nori. “I’ll check the road, follow the men if I find them. I’ll take Mye and Liam with me. You’ll stay with the caravan.” His voice brooked no disagreement. “Wakje will watch your backs, and Payne will watch Leanna.”
“Uncle Ki,” she started. She glanced meaningfully at the forest.
“No.” The word was flat. “Stay with the caravan. Stay with Payne. First thing a raider does to his target is cut him out of the pack. You almost gave yourself over to them already. Do not do it again.”
She bit her lip. “Yes, Uncle Ki.”
Hunter broke in. “They might not be raiders you’re tracking.”
Ki gave him a sharp look.
“They might be Harumen.”
The ex-raider studied the Tamrani for a long, cold moment. “Harumen,” he said softly. “I know them. They’re out of Sidisport.”
Hunter met his gaze without flinching.
Ki nodded toward Nori. “You have connected her to them, through you?”
“Yes. It was unintentional. But she is now a target.”
“How much lead do they have?”
Hunter pursed his lips, thinking. “Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty, but the archer has a knife through his forearm. He’ll have to stop to tend it.”
“I never did.” Ki’s lips stretched in what was supposed to be a grin, and Hunter caught his first real glimpse of the ex-raider in those eyes. He glanced at Nori warily. This was the “nicer” uncle? She had six more of them to watch her like hawks, not to mention two adopted aunts who were said to be as venomous and cold-blooded as desert snakes. That didn’t even count the blood-kin who had their own reputations as lepa. Perhaps it wasn’t Payne protecting his sister at all. It might be her protecting the county from the rest of the Wolven Guard.
Nori’s gaze flickered as her brother ran toward fireside. “I’ll tell him,” she said quickly to Ki, as she saw Payne throw a question at someone, then veer off toward the healer’s wagon. She didn’t look back at Hunter as she slipped away.
Ki looked at the Tamrani for a long moment. “You were . . . walking?”
Hunter started to shrug, but the healer gripped his shoulder in a vise and forced him to be still, and he sucked in his breath instead.
Ki gave him a long look for another chilling moment, then jogged away to the corral.
XXV
The knife at your throat is not the real danger;
The claw at your back is more sly.
—Diton saying
The tavern was noisy as a concert of drunks. Even in the back room, Nori could hear more than she wanted. She looked at the map spread out before them, then around at the group at the table. She shivered. There was enough steel at this one table to take over half of Shockton. With Nori were Wakje, Payne, Hunter, Fentris, and Kettre. Hunter had given up his tooled but bloodied jerkin for a simple cozar one, and with the weathering he’d gotten in the last few days he now looked like a tall Ariyen. Fentris, with his embroidered tunic and tooled boots, his House ring and styled hair, was the only one who looked out of place, but all of them were heavily armed. With Ki and his sons away hunting raiders, the only one missing was Leanna. Wakje had simply said “No” when she made to join them. The girl had accepted it, but Nori didn’t think that would last. Leanna was fifteen, with all the stubborn blindness of adolescence. She wouldn’t tolerate being kicked out of the family meetings for long.
In spite of the privacy of the room, all of them leaned in to keep their voices down. Wakje looked around the table then said shortly, “Let’s lay it out.”
Nori glanced at the others, then picked up the pen and started marking. She didn’t need to glance at the notes in her scout book. Every fear was sharp in her mind. “Two ring-runners, killed two days ago in Gambrel Meadow, a ways off Ironjaw Trail. Four raiders at Bell Rocks. Yesterday, on Willow Road, three raiders in an open attack—”
“Three Harumen,” Hunter cut in as he shifted his shoulder again. He just couldn’t get comfortable. “I believe they were Harumen.”
She glanced at him. “Harumen,” she corrected, “in broad daylight after Payne and me, including one whom Hunter recognized. One Haruman at Cohenton Circle, after Elder Connaught. That raide—Haruman after Hunter and me in the verge park, with Murton, from our own caravan.”
Payne picked up the pen and marked four ticks at the Cohenton Circle. “Possible listeners while Nori and I were talking. Two suspicous men at the Cohenton Circle at dawn, outside the gates. One of our climbing ropes was sabotaged. One of Nori’s knives may have been deliberately fatigued. Our hunting bolts were swapped out for poor ones that would tumble in flight. And there was a woman in our wagon.”
Fentris raised an elegant eyebrow at Payne.
He said impatiently, “Not that kind of woman. Someone who went in there without any of us around.”
Nori added, “And then there is Rezuku.”
Fentris cocked his head at her.
“Merchant,” Payne explained. “Joined us in Adamstan. Nori doesn’t like the feel of him.”
“Then shouldn’t Mato make the list?”
He snorted. “Mato’s a buffoon. He’d never be smart or subtle enough to pull together so many threads. Besides, he’s now bokat among the
cozar, and I can’t see a smart man pissing away so many potential allies.”
They went down the list. Hunter added four people, and Nori waited for him to add a few more, but he didn’t. She watched him carefully enough that he raised an eyebrow at her, and she quickly looked away. Fentris and Kettre added four names from the latest Sidisport gossip. Then they began listing accidents: Ell Tai’s broken ankle, Rocknight Styne’s broken axle, the weibers getting loose, and even older notes from Nori’s punctured scout book. When they were done, the map was heavily dotted along the three main trade lines.
Payne murmured, “Either this is one hell of a bad-luck spring, or someone’s declared war on the cozar.”
Hunter studied the map. “Almost every caravan has been delayed one way or another. If this keeps up, the Journey youths will be scattered across the counties even at the end of the Test ninan, not to mention the elders who will still be on the road. Your Lloroi will be lucky to pull half a council together.”
Kettre ran her finger along the trade lines. “All of us, so close together.”
Payne nodded. “It’s as if someone aimed a knife at the cozar’s throats.”
The hazel-eyed woman frowned. “Can you pass word to the Ells? If the cozar are being targeted, there has to be some way to let them know without starting a general panic.”
“I could do that,” Nori volunteered.
Payne nodded. As a ranked ring-runner for the council, she could get the message codes for any Ell or elder. “But there’s no way to keep that secret. The Ells would tell their Hafells; the Hafells would have to warn the gate guards at each circle . . .” He shrugged. “It could drive the raiders—or Harumen—” He added with a nod at Hunter. “—underground before we’ve identified them all.”
Nori frowned. “We should at least let the Lloroi know.”
“Aye, if he hasn’t heard already.” He nodded as she raised an eyebrow. “Even allowing for the normal hazards of travel, we’ve had far too many accidents.”
Kettre stared at the map. “But who would hit the cozar so consistently? I mean, look at us, we’re just not that important—”
Fentris cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but you’re not cozar.”
Wakje gave the Tamrani a sharp look, and Payne frowned. “What?”
“You aren’t cozar,” the slim man repeated.
Hunter cocked his head at him while the others stared.
This time, Fentris spoke slowly. “None. Of. You. Is. Cozar.” He nodded toward Wakje. “You and Ki, you’re Wolven Guard, ex-raiders, out of Bilocctar, by way of Ariye. For all that you’ve ridden with the cozar for twenty years, you’ve never taken more than a chovas berth. You—” He nodded at Payne. “—are keyo or chovas—as you and your sister said so pointedly at the fireside. You might think of yourselves as cozar, but when it comes down to it, you’re really Randonnen, with a bit of Ariyen thrown in.” He nodded at their dawning comprehension. “Hunter and I are Tamrani. Elder Connaught is a Yorundan councilman. For all that he travels with the cozar every summer, Connaught also still takes a keyo berth, not a cozar place in the line. That other elder who left the train in Sidisport—I’ll bet he wasn’t cozar, either.”
“No,” Kettre said slowly. “He wasn’t.”
Hunter leaned back in his chair and regarded the other Tamrani with an odd expression.
Fentris ignored him and pointed to the list. “What about this woman, this Hael?”
“She’s a scout out of Ramaj Diton,” Nori answered. “She usually rides with a few of her students, but she’s good enough that any Ell would gladly give her a keyo berth.”
“As I said,” he finished quietly. “A guest berth. None of you is cozar. In fact, I’d wager that at least half the names on your list aren’t actually cozar.”
“Dik spit.” Payne stared at the slim man.
“But the caravans,” Nori protested. “The accidents. Ell Tai’s broken ankle.”
“Oh, you’re being harassed,” Fentris agreed. “You’d be foolish to think otherwise. I just don’t think it has anything to do with being in the wagons. You’d be traveling to Shockton one way or another—that’s the one thing nearly everyone does do in a Test year.” He glanced at Wakje. “In fact, the cozar have probably made it easier, not harder, to see that you have needles in the silk.”
Nori shot Kettre a questioning look. “A rast on your tail,” the other woman whispered. “It’s a Sidisport thing.”
Fentris looked around the small circle. “Let me ask one question: What would happen if all of you were delayed from reaching the Test town?”
There was silence for a moment. Payne snorted. “Nothing,” he answered. “The meetings would be held without us, the Tests would go on, the Journey assignments would be handed out. None of us is so important that the Test ninan wouldn’t happen. In an extreme year, they might delay a few Tests so we could finish up late. That’s about the worst.”
Wakje watched Fentris closely. Even Hunter found himself considering the other Tamrani’s words closely. Fentris ignored them both and persisted. “So there’s no reason to delay you? To put you all out of action?”
Nori and Payne exchanged glances.
“What?” Hunter asked sharply.
Nori shrugged uncomfortably. It was Payne who answered. “Sometimes we’re targeted by people who want to get to our parents, but that wouldn’t explain Connaught or Hael or the others.”
Fentris said softly, “Then what do you all have in common? What do you all know? What have you all seen?”
This time, the silence was longer.
“Think about it,” Fentris told them. “Because that’s what the reason is.”
Hunter ran his hand through his hair. “Perhaps a better question is, what are we going to do about it, if we’re now a set of targets?”
Kettre turned her bracelet absently on her wrist. “Three ways to deal with being hunted: siege up, go to ground; fight back; or flee.”
“I’m beginning to be a big fan of fleeing,” muttered Payne.
Wakje shot him a sharp look, and the younger man subsided. “We’ll think on it,” the ex-raider said flatly.
As Wakje rode away with Nori and Kettre, Payne paused on the tavern porch. He ignored Fentris and rested his arms on the banister to study the taller Tamrani. Hunter was watching the wolfwalker, and Payne’s voice was soft. “What’s your game, Tamrani? What have you dragged us into?”
Hunter didn’t even glance at Payne. “Nothing you shouldn’t already have seen,” he answered. “Nothing that wouldn’t already be considered your duty as the son of Aranur.”
Payne’s voice was flat. “You sound like an elder, Ranakai Ao.”
“And you sound too defensive.”
“I’ve had practice.” The younger man straightened and stalked down the steps. He took his dnu from the hitching post and mounted in one smooth movement. “Enjoy the rest of your evening, Tamrani. I doubt we’ll see you much longer.” He reined around sharply and spurred his dnu after Wakje.
Hunter watched them disappear with cool green eyes. “You might be surprised,” he murmured. “I think we could share a few secrets.”
“But you didn’t,” Fentris reminded him quietly out of the dark. “You kept it to yourself about the shifts of power we’ve seen.”
“As did you,” Hunter returned.
“I said enough.” Fentris broke off as two men wandered out of the tavern and headed vaguely toward the stables.
Hunter rubbed his jaw and leaned on the wooden banister as Payne had done before him. Like the tavern, the wood was rough and unfinished, and somehow appropriate for their meeting. This whole trip seemed rough and unfinished, as if he was constantly looking the wrong way, blind to the real danger. “You think they’ll leave the caravan?”
“Maybe. The wolfwalker seemed inclined.”
“She’s been inclined to do that since I met her.”
Fentris shot him a look and Hunter actually chuckled. “No, I think I intrig
ue her in spite of herself. It’s the uncle who’s unpredictable.”
“He’s a raider.”
“Ex-raider,” Hunter corrected.
Fentris started to lean on the banister beside him, noted the stains on the wood, and changed his mind. “He’s still a raider, Brithanas. He thinks like a raider, and he’ll act like a raider when pushed. There were rumors about him in Tume.”
In the dark, Hunter watched Fentris closely. Their deal was to share information, but neither one was comfortable enough to offer anything else. “Rumors?” he prompted carefully.
Fentris didn’t meet his eyes. Instead, he looked out toward the darkness and spoke as if commenting on a neighbor’s choice of dress. “About four years ago, the girl was stalked at the university by another scout. She nearly killed the man and herself in the process, and was unconscious for a ninan afterward. Then the stalker turned up dead. All the man’s wounds were made by worlags, but they said it was rare to see so many gashes in one body.”
“There was no proof, of course, of anything.”
“Not against Wakje or his partner. Both uncles were accounted for the night the man disappeared. But it’s said that, if you dangled a man in a worlag den, that’s about the way he’d be hauled back out. That, if the Wolven Guard had their way, that’s what they’d have done to him.”
Hunter considered that. “Wakje won’t want to leave the caravan until he’s identified everyone he can. Then he’ll send the boy and girl away, and start taking the Harumen out, one by one.”
“Were you thinking to help?”
“The uncle or the girl?”
“The girl’s prettier.”
Hunter felt an unfamiliar roil of possessiveness.
Fentris strolled down the tavern steps, got his dnu, and mounted. He caught Hunter’s expression and chuckled. “Don’t knot your socks, Brithanas. But I’d watch her, if I were you. There are things going on in her head that don’t make sense for what I know of the Daughter of Dione. She’s afraid of something.”
Wolf in Night Page 32