by Jim Galford
Greth chuckled, then winced. “Truth is, Raeln, you’re growing on me. Kind of like a rash. I like a lot of things I shouldn’t and I don’t want you dead, at least not yet. Give it a couple days. If I live through this, I promise I’ll try to kill you again someday.”
“Thank you. That’s actually the kindest thing I think you’ve said, even with the rash part.”
“Don’t expect me to be nicer than that, even if I do…never mind. Are we dragging my miserable hide to the camp or waiting here until the snow thaws?” Greth asked through his still-clenched jaw.
Judging by the tightness around his eyes and trembling ears, Raeln knew Greth was in incredible pain but hiding it better than most.
“Once we start running, I’m not stopping for anything,” Raeln explained, slipping on his pack and Greth’s. He then got a hand under Greth’s legs and another behind his back. “Hold that cloth tight so you don’t start bleeding as soon as I pick you up.”
“Yeah, I know how bleeding works. Either leave me or get going. I need to concentrate on not dying, if you don’t mind.”
Raeln picked him up as slowly as he could, then let Greth steady himself a moment. The bleeding cuts on Raeln’s arms throbbed and his muscles objected immediately to the weight of everything he was trying to hold.
“There’s no way you’ll make it to the camp carrying me and all our things,” Greth warned, looking distinctly uncomfortable about being lugged around like baggage. “If you drop me…”
Digging in with his toes, Raeln pushed himself straight to a run, heading northwest. He ran as hard as his legs would let him, using his training back in Hyeth to ignore the aches in his muscles and burning of his lungs. The detachment from his own body’s feelings allowed him to keep going even after his mind warned him he should have fallen.
Raeln ignored everything except running and the difficulty of the terrain ahead of him. Ice and uneven ground he avoided, while steadily going in the direction Greth had pointed him. He ran on, feeling nothing and noticing little, until he heard Greth telling him to stop.
As Raeln slowed and began paying attention to Greth, pain flooded his body, returning with the loss of his concentration. His arms shook and his back felt as though he had been beaten with sticks for hours. Every muscle in his legs trembled and ached, even as his feet tingled numbly from the time in the snow. Raeln’s heart raced and his lungs felt raw, but he saw they had come far already and that made it worth the pain.
“We’re almost there,” Greth told him, staring up at him with a touch of respect and awe. “Remind me never to pick another fight with you.”
Raeln tried to answer, but his breath came in such sharp gasps he could not form the words. He attempted to walk on, but his knees and ankles nearly gave out, forcing him to stop again.
“Put me down, you oaf. The camp should be just over the rise. The high stones here help hide it. Asrahn can be here in five minutes or less. No trick this time…just go get help.”
Reluctantly, Raeln sat Greth down against one of the smooth stones that jutted out of the smooth incline of the hillside. He checked the cloth, finding blood soaked through it but was not oozing anymore, which was better than he had hoped for. Setting down both packs beside Greth, he put a hand to the man’s cheek.
“I’ll be back, with or without her,” he promised. “I won’t let you die out here alone.”
“Shut up and go,” Greth snapped, looking embarrassed.
Despite the shaking of his legs, Raeln hurried up the slope near the rocks, making his way over the hill and into the section of the mountainside that the stones hid. As soon as he reached the far side of the stones where he could see much farther ahead, he stopped and fell to the ground. Raeln landed hard on his rump, though he did not even notice the sharp stones under him biting into his tail and hip.
Nearly a mile of the mountainside ahead of him lay blackened. A crater filled much of the region, descending from where he sat to a point nearly twenty feet below him, the ground carved out as if by a massive shovel. At the center of the crater, a shifting black hole hung in mid-air, with wisps of dark smoke drifting around it in a lazy spiral. Around the edge of the blackened land, pieces of what looked to be a metal statue lay scattered about.
Raeln sat there for a minute, trying to convince himself Greth had led him off the correct path. The man had lost a lot of blood so it was a reasonable belief, though Raeln knew that was probably not true.
Finally, he forced himself to stand back up, though he could not take his eyes off of the oddly moving smoke near the hole in the air. He stumbled away from it, searching the edges of the clearing for any sign that maybe Greth had gotten the directions wrong.
He walked slowly, making his way around the crater until he came to an area on the western side. There, Raeln found the blackened and crushed remnants of tents that had been just outside the blast area. They had been blown clear of whatever had destroyed the area and fallen behind stones that shielded them from being further damaged.
Raeln stared at the tattered remains, wondering whether he really wanted to know if they were from the village Greth expected to find. He finally gave in, knowing that delaying too long could be fatal for Greth.
He picked up the nearest tent piece, sniffing at it in an attempt to identify the former owners. It took him a while, trying to sort out the different smells, ranging from smoke, to mildew from its time in the rough weather of the mountains, to the mingled scents of animals that had come past it recently. Eventually, he found the scent he was looking for but dreading.
Wildlings had lived in that tent. Squirrels, but still wildlings. The odds of multiple wildling camps in the exact location Greth had directed him toward…
Growling and losing his temper, Raeln ripped the nearest branch off of the closest tree not knocked flat by whatever had destroyed the camp. He threw the branch as far as he could, then screamed at the sky until the shout faded into a wolfish howl of distress.
Raeln very nearly fell where he was, fighting the urge to continue screaming or burst into tears. He needed to save Greth, but he had no idea how. If he went back without a healer, he would have to watch Greth die slowly in agony. The thought terrified him and made him wonder if he had the strength to be calm for Greth, the way Greth had for Ishande.
The thought of the woman he had been expected to marry made Raeln sick to his stomach. He had tried not to think about her for a long time, but Greth’s injury made his thoughts instinctively go to her.
Wiping at the unbidden tears, Raeln headed back toward where he had left Greth, determined to be there for the man’s last minutes. It would be difficult, but he owed him that and more. He would be with him to the man’s last breath. It was the only thing he could offer him and the least he could do after Greth took his place at Ishande’s side.
Raeln climbed the stones to quickly get back to where he had left Greth, then slowed and stopped only a few feet away. Lowering himself to nearly lie down on the cold rocks, he stared in surprise at a large elk buck that stood twenty feet or so from where Greth lay, watching both him and Raeln.
“Tell me I’ve lost too much blood and am seeing things,” whispered Greth without taking his eyes off the elk. “Where was that when we were looking for food?”
Raeln could not fathom why the elk had not run. Instead, it seemed to be studying them, cocking its head every so often when they made noise.
After about a minute, the elk turned and began walking away. It rounded a nearby tree, then was gone without any hint of where it might have gone. Even its tracks in the snow and its scent vanished, making Raeln wonder if perhaps he had been hit in the head during the fight with Olis’ group of wildlings.
Raeln slid the rest of the way down the stones and sat down near Greth.
“You don’t have a bitter old female following you out here to heal me, do you?” Greth asked, giving Raeln a glance. “I don’t see Asrahn. What did you find?”
“I found a burned-out crater
that looks like the one north of Lantonne. There’s no camp…or at least no survivors.”
A sound like rustling leaves—which made it stand out to Raeln, as all the trees nearby were pines—grew loud and then faded. As soon as the sound went away, a woman emerged from the trees near where the elk had gone moments before, appearing as abruptly as the animal had disappeared.
The woman was unclothed but Raeln could not call her naked, despite being furless. She was a fae-kin, one of those odd folks descended from forest spirits. She stood comfortably in the snow barefoot, her whole body wrapped in vines and the occasional leaf that appeared to spring from her body. Where he could see flesh, the woman’s skin was a pale green that blended easily into the pines around her. Her hair was also tinted green, hanging halfway down her back.
“I was told there were more wildlings out here,” she announced, stopping and raising a hand toward Raeln and Greth. “Identify yourselves and the city you come from.”
Stifling a cough, Greth still managed to answer first. “No city. We’re trying to come home to Lihuan’s pack…”
“The camp is gone,” the woman answered sharply. She lowered her hand slowly, apparently still unsure if she should lower her guard. “What are you names, so I can take them back to the survivors?”
“Tell them Ghohar’s pup Greth is home,” replied Greth. “Where are they?”
“I promised Lihuan I would help protect the survivors. I’ll let them decide if they will come for you.”
Raeln got to his feet in a hurry, and the woman backed into the trees, clearly ready to run. He stopped, not really wanting to have the first somewhat friendly person he had seen in weeks run from him. “My friend is hurt. Can you help us or fetch someone who can?” he implored.
The woman’s eyes darted to Greth, then back to Raeln. “I will tend to him, but you will distance yourself. Go over near the trees and kneel. If you approach, your friend will have to fend for himself.”
Raeln wanted to argue, but looked over at Greth. The man’s eyes drifted and he had begun shivering…despite the snow, it was the first time Raeln had seen Greth bothered by the cold at all. He had lost a lot of blood and was in no condition to be moved again. Whether this woman really intended to help or not, Raeln could not risk delaying further.
Even before Raeln could react, Greth’s head flopped forward as he passed out.
Keeping his mouth shut, Raeln turned, went to the far section of trees near the rock line where the woman had indicated, and knelt. Once he had settled there, the woman headed toward Greth, though she kept an eye on Raeln the whole time.
“Your friend was stabbed, bitten, and clawed at,” the woman noted after a moment, giving them each a concerned look. “Wildlings attacked you?”
Raeln nodded. “Runaways from the pack is my understanding. Olis…do you know him?”
“I know enough of him from my first days in the camp to know your friend is lucky to be this whole. I will do what I can. Anyone Olis would try to kill is someone I’d rather keep alive. The pack-leader will have much trouble with Olis, sooner or later.”
The woman set to work, putting one hand to Greth’s forehead while investigating the wounds with her right. After several minutes, she removed the bundled cloth from his stomach and set it aside as Greth’s eyes fluttered open.
“This is all I can do for the two of you,” the woman explained, standing. “I will tell the pack that you are out here. If they can find you before you move on, they will.”
Raeln hopped up and started toward Greth, and the woman immediately began walking toward the woods opposite him.
“Please…I want to get him back to his people,” Raeln pleaded, but the woman shook her head and kept walking.
“I will let them know. I will not lead you there,” she told him firmly once she neared the trees.
“Who do I ask for when we find the pack?” asked Greth weakly. “I’ll want to thank you when I’m not half-dead.”
Stepping into the trees, the woman turned and told him, “Dalania. I’m tending to the injured while Feanne and the others are gone. I won’t be hard to find.”
Before anyone could say anything more, the woman leaned back into a nearby tree trunk and passed into it. She disappeared into the tree, leaving the woods quiet again.
“And this is why spellcasters creep me out,” Greth said to himself, eyeing his side. “Still, they aren’t altogether useless. Day or two and I’ll be back to as normal as I’ve ever been.”
Then, as some thought struck him, Greth thumped his head against the stones.
“I should have asked her about the striped monkey I was hunting,” he told Raeln, patting the small pouch on his belt where he kept the smashed necklace of the pack’s healer. “I’m still on the hook until I know he’s dead. Keep your eyes open for a monkey with a death wish.”
Raeln chuckled and stared at the trees where the woman had gone for a long time, then went back to Greth. The man was right—the wound looked well on its way to healed, though it was closing slowly. Whatever Dalania had done for him, it was not as clean as the work Raeln had seen healers do in the past.
“We should get going,” he told Greth, offering a hand up. “You’ve lost a lot of blood and who knows what might follow our trail.”
“I know exactly what would follow it and I agree,” said Greth, slowly using Raeln’s leverage to get onto his feet. He steadied himself and tightened his grip on Raeln’s wrist. “I need to ask something before we go.”
Raeln tried to pull his hand away, but Greth held firm, even digging his claws into Raeln’s wrist.
“You kept using the word ‘friend’,” noted Greth, smirking. “What happened to ‘escaped prisoner’ and anything else you wanted to call me up until a few days ago?”
Giving up on trying to pull his hand free, Raeln clasped Greth’s wrist in the traditional greeting of warriors who saw each other as equals. The symbolism was not lost on Greth, judging by the deepening of his smirk.
“I came here to drop you off in the camp and be rid of you,” Raeln explained. “I’d rather be traveling with you than alone after seeing what things are like this far from the cities. It helps me understand why you act like you do.”
“That’s not exactly a complement.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Laughing, then wincing and holding his side, Greth released Raeln’s wrist. “Are you in a hurry to get back to Ilarra?” he asked Raeln, looking up at the sky.
“Not the way she’s been since we left Hyeth. Why?”
“It’s two days to Altis. One little detour and we can see what the Turessians are up to. It might help us find out where my people fled to…and whether yours will need to soon.”
Raeln thought about that and nodded. “Two days? I can afford that much delay. She wouldn’t need to know.”
“Excellent. We’ll travel around west. There’s a river that’s always teeming with fish and not too many things that want to eat wildlings.”
“That’s along the way?”
Greth smirked and began limping northwest, saying over his shoulder, “Mostly.”
Sighing, Raeln followed him deeper into the wilderness. He had a strong feeling this was going to be a long detour.
*
“Where are we?” asked Greth, sitting up abruptly. Even in the dark cave, his eyes gleamed brightly as he stared around him, trying to see anything.
Seated nearer the entrance to the dank crack in the mountainside that led to the mud and snow-covered slopes, Raeln opened his eyes. He had been meditating, but the words snapped him out in the same way the sounds of anyone approaching the entrance would have. He felt entirely refreshed…Greth must have slept longer than he had expected.
“Maybe a mile or two west of the camp,” he told Greth, stretching his neck. “I wanted to wait until you were awake before we went any farther, especially when the thunderstorm rolled in.”
Groaning and putting a hand to his stomach, Greth practi
cally crawled over to Raeln, then flopped near him, apparently too tired to bother sitting.
“How long was I asleep?” Greth asked him next, staring out of the cave from where he lay. “I remember walking for a while, then…well…this.”
“About two days. It’s almost night again.”
Greth looked at Raeln as though he were insane, then nodded and closed his eyes again. “Not really surprised. I pushed myself too hard getting here. Add a wound like that and I guess a day or two isn’t really too bad. How long were you out?”
Raeln smiled. “Haven’t slept yet. I prefer to meditate when I’m not too tired. I can probably go another day or two before I have to sleep. Three, if I push myself.”
“This is why we don’t live with elves, Raeln,” chastised Greth. “They make you do crazy things like meditate or eat vegetables.”
“I like vegetables.”
“My point exactly. You’ve been housebroken.”
“Are you saying I should pee on the floor? If that’s how your pack lives…”
Greth started laughing until he had to hold his side. “No, it’s just an expression, Raeln. We refer to anyone who’s been enslaved too long to know their own instincts as a housebroken wildling.”
Chuckling at the confusion, Raeln thought over things that had been plaguing him while Greth was unconscious. “The elf that Olis was carrying…” he started to ask, but Greth winced and looked away immediately.
“When he said the wolves could join him for dinner, he meant the elf,” Greth confirmed. “Olis believes that anything he can kill is food. My father’s generation wasn’t much different, but that was when they lived alone and starved most of the year. Once he joined a pack, saying something about eating someone would be only a joke, but Olis has no sense of humor. He would have eaten us if he had killed us.”
“And you tried to be a part of his pack?”
“Yeah,” said Greth, looking genuinely ashamed. “When my father died, I left Lihuan’s pack for a couple months. I thought they weren’t doing enough to get revenge. Olis preys on people like me, trying to convince us that killing anyone and anything is a type of revenge. It took me a month running with him before I realized that I was better than that. I never looked back.”