We might have been the last people on earth, for all evidence of civilization we saw. No villages, no farms, no tilled land, no stock grazing on the obviously fertile landscape. Had I felt like talking, I might have asked Rygel or Kel’Ratan why such beautiful, lush land wasn’t tended. If this place was haunted as Kel’Ratan said, the ghosts must surely be lazy, for none put in an appearance.
I didn’t feel curious enough to break the morose mood. When a shallow stream emerged from the bottom of a slope with a thick stretch of forest off to the west, I knew we should stop and rest the horses.
Before I could speak, however, Raine raised his clenched right fist and called a halt.
“Time for a break,” he said, his voice hollow.
Left and Right wheeled their horses and trotted back to us, Yuri and Yuras rejoining us from the rear. Alun would catch up shortly, I guessed, sliding down from Mikk’s saddle. Bar blew in from another of his scouting flights and landed on the grass near me. He folded his wings neatly across his back, his lion tail swinging from side to side. He immediately sensed the discord, and eyed me sharply with a concerned chirp. I merely shook my head.
“Go fetch Rannon, would you?” I asked. “And Witraz? He rode south.”
He squawked amiably, but remained earthbound, his raptor eyes questioning. I tried for a smile.
“No worries,” I said brightly. “It’s all good.”
He hissed. I doubt it.
Wrapping my arms around his huge savage beak, I kissed it. Holding it shut, I gazed up into his fierce eagle’s eyes.
“Have I told you lately that I love you?”
A muffled chirp emerged, his fierce eyes lightening a little in their fierceness.
“Well, consider yourself on notice. And go get Rannon before he gets too far ahead.”
With another worried hiss, Bar launched himself into the air. The warm thermals rising from the long grass lifted his wings. With his front legs tucked beneath him and his leonine hind legs and tail streaming out behind him, he flew up and past me. Eagle’s raptor eyes peered down behind his huge savage beak. His graceful bank over my head soothed my troubled spirit, as it always did, and I watched him until he was but a dark speck on the horizon.
“—are you certain?”
Bringing my eyes back to earth, I found the others had dismounted and my boys led horses to the water. Alun had taken Mikk from me without my noticing.
Raine, side by side with Rygel, walked toward me, the pup in his hands. His icy grey eyes with that weird ring now held a shadow behind them, a strange pall that hadn’t been there before. Unease came to call when I saw that shadow, feeling its menace, its unwholesomeness. The dark ball of fur squirmed restlessly in his grip, impatient mewling emerging from his tiny fuzzy muzzle.
Rygel’s aristocratic face frowned, his hand running through his wheaten locks.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Rygel says Ja’Teel is up to something.”
“You can hear him?” I asked, remembering what Rygel said about magical clatter.
He nodded. “I’m going to ride a short distance away.”
His long slender hand pointed toward the small forest to the west. “I need some quiet, some privacy, to put myself into a trance. I might get some clarification on what he’s doing.”
“Would you mind terribly feeding him?” Raine asked, holding the pup out to me. “Someone should guard his back.”
“Of course.”
The pup was heavier than he looked. If his dam was bigger than a small horse, how big would he grow? He was already larger by several pounds than any mastiff pup I’d ever seen at his age. He accepted the transfer to my arms with a grunt and a burp, licking his tiny black nose with an even tinier pink tongue. Taking in my scent, I gathered with some amusement. I looked up at Raine, his smile genuine as he gazed down at us.
“What are you going to name him?” I asked.
“Damned if I know,” he replied with a sigh.
“That’s not a very good name,” I chided gently.
This time his laugh held real mirth and I grinned. Rygel handed me the bag of mushed meat.
“We won’t be long,” he said, over his shoulder as the pair strode rapidly to their horses and vaulted up. Within moments, they galloped away and vanished into the trees.
“All right, big fellow,” I said, sitting down with my legs crossed and setting him in my lap. My knees promptly went numb. “I reckon a growing boy needs some meat on his bones.”
His tiny tail wagged in excitement as he scented his second breakfast. He eagerly gobbled the small scoop of brown sludge off my finger, his needle teeth scraping my skin.
“Can I help?”
I glanced up to see Arianne, her flare of temper gone and her sweet small face smiling with unconscious delight as she looked down at the fuzzy creature in my lap. If it meant a truce and a lightening of hostilities, I was all for it. Corwyn, as usual, stood nearby, his thumbs hooked through his swordbelt. While he didn’t exactly smile, his craggy features lightened a fraction as he eyed the pup over-spilling my arms.
“Of course,” I said. I handed Arianne the leather bag. “I’ll hold him and you feed him.”
Sitting beside me, Arianne dug more mush from the bag and held it to the hungry wolf. He gobbled it down and licked her fingers. She giggled.
“He’s so cute,” she cooed.
I laughed. “He is that.”
I cuddled him a moment, breathing in the fresh, clean canine smell of him, feeling his soft fur against my face. No wonder Raine was entranced. This pup was adorable.
“What is it about women and babies,” Kel’Ratan grumbled, watching us from a pace away as his bay stallion hungrily tore at the rich grass beside him.
“They turn women into mothering lunatics,” Corwyn replied, shocking me.
The man actually had a sense of humor. Who’d have thought?
I tried to frown but giggled instead. “How can you resist such a beautiful baby?” I asked, holding the pup out to them. He squirmed and whined, wanting his mush, not the admiration of stoic warriors.
Kel’Ratan’s bay stallion ceased his grazing and reached out his big head to sniff the newcomer, his liquid brown eyes curious. The wolf wiggled and whined, his sharp cries cutting the quiet air. Kel’Ratan’s bay wasn’t much impressed. His derisive snort blew puppy fur back and flattened ears not yet strong enough to perk upright. Then he went back to the important business of getting as much grass into his belly as possible.
“We’ll see about that,” Arianne pouted, shoving the stallion’s head away. “Begone with you.”
I held the plump pup before my face, gazing into the half-opened blue eyes, flat ears and stump muzzle. “Ignore them,” I said to him. “You’re the cutest thing ever and they’re idiots.”
“What’s so cute?” Kel’Ratan demanded.
I turned the pup around. “This is cute.”
“It’s a wolf and it’ll probably grow up to eat your horse.”
I nuzzled the baby’s warm black nose with my own. “He wouldn’t do that, would you, you adorable creature?”
He squirmed in my grip, more concerned with matters pertaining to his still empty belly than his cuteness. Kel’Ratan snorted, sounding very much like his horse, and turned away.
I put the wiggling pup back in my lap where he eagerly consumed everything in the bag Rygel provided and Arianne offered.
Arianne delved into the depths of its emptiness and looked at me, worried. “I certainly hope there’s more where that came from.”
Bar winged in to land beside me, his colossal wings shading me, Arianne and the pup from the late summer sun. Sitting back on his haunches and folding his wings, he peered down. Two women sitting on our butts in the grass with a wolf pup between us. His beak parted slightly, and his ears perked forward, curious, he bent his feathered to better see the newcomer.
“Isn’t he sweet?” I asked.
Bar reared back, his yellow eyes
blazing. Say what?
“You’re just jealous.” I sniffed. “He’s not even mine.”
Rannon cantered up, his horse lathered. “Nothing to report, Your Highness,” he said. “For miles ahead, nothing but the same landscape. Hills, some forest and lots of grasslands. No people, no villages. No royal troops, either.”
Witraz hadn’t yet ridden in. I twisted my neck painfully to look up into Bar’s hot eyes. “Where’s Witraz?”
He chirped and clicked sharply several times. Turning, he dug his beak into a fierce itch on his spine.
“He needs to rest his horse sometime,” I replied, cuddling the wolf pup.
“Where is he?” Kel’Ratan asked.
I jerked my chin southward. “He’s staying up there for now.”
“What’s to look at?” he grumbled. “Nobody around for a hundred leagues in any direction.”
Other than Brutal and the Tongu, too far away to be a nuisance, he was right. No people seemed to live in this beautiful green land. I glanced around at the silvery-grey grass bending beneath the soft sough of the breeze, the long rolling hills dotted with wild flowers and dogwood patches. A lush land ripe for the cultivating, I thought. Humans should be crawling all over the place.
A worm of unease squirmed into my gut and set up housekeeping adjacent to the worry over Raine. Why would there not be people working this obviously fertile and graceful land? With water aplenty, the long grass ripe for grazing cattle, sheep, goats or any other domesticated creature that liked green things, I saw no reason why there were no villages, no farmers, no herders. Were we trespassing on someone’s territory? Inwardly, I guessed that we indeed violated someone’s border, and we may even now be watched. Who did the vast haunted Plains belong to?
I stood up, awkward under the weight of the whelp, and made a half-assed effort at dusting grass stems from my leathers. The now drowsy pup filled my arms, held close to my chest and weighed me down. I gazed about me, seeing only empty green hills, thick forests inhabited by watching eyes, gently rolling hills that should be razed flat. I may not have owned the sight, but I knew wrongness when it slapped me across the cheek. This is very strange, I thought.
In front of me, a shadow rose.
Like dark, oily smoke, a man-shaped darkness with pale eyes erupted from the tall grass. Towering over me, it blocked the sun, casting me into deep dimness. Long arms reached outward from its body. I recoiled, instinctively twisting to keep my body between the shadow and the baby in my arms.
In that instant, several things happened at once.
Kel’Ratan lunged toward me, cursing, thrusting his burly form between it and me. Corwyn fell across a startled Arianne, flattening her, his body shielding hers. Bar screeched, his wings unfurling as he lunged toward the intruder, his talons out to cut it down. I dropped the pup at my feet, dimly hoping he wasn’t hurt as I whipped my sword from my sheath. I heard his frightened yelp as though from a dark distance.
The shadow ignored me. Its arms, if they were arms, reached out and pointed toward Kel’Ratan and Corwyn. Kel’Ratan froze, his mouth working, his eyes bulging in his head. His hands tried to grasp his throat. Beneath his clawing fingers, I saw the flesh over his throat indented as though clutched by invisible fingers. His mouth, drawn down, fought to get life-giving breath into his lungs.
Arianne screamed.
Corwyn, on his knees, also gasped, trying in vain to tear the invisible hands from his throat. He struggled, Arianne raking her fingers across nothing as she, too tried, to grasp what wasn’t there to grasp. Deep bruising popped up under Corwyn’s flesh as blood vessels burst.
I swore, violent words dropping from my lips. I slashed my sword at the man-shape, hoping to cut it down in its tracks.
My sword went through it as though through thick smoke.
Ja’Teel’s deep chuckle answered my efforts. “Stupid bitch,” he said, his shape’s pale eyes turning toward me.
Bar’s huge body knocked me flat on my back, his lion hind foot almost crushing the wolf whelp. Standing over me, his huge winged form protecting mine, Bar slashed through the shape with his talons. Like my sword, his claws caught on nothing. He tried to bite down on it, with the same result. His beak hit no flesh, nor did it cut into the oily shadow.
Screeching in fury, seeing that nothing he did harmed the intruder, Bar backed away, dragging me with him. Caught on his talon, the pup was dragged along with me, albeit unintentionally. I appreciated the save, however.
“You can’t stop me,” Ja’Teel sneered. “I’m not really here.”
Kel’Ratan’s face rapidly turned blue. His strength failed, his hands ceased to tear Ja’Teel’s grip from his throat. His body sagged, only the invisible hand kept him up. Corwyn looked dead, his body flagging, his flesh drained of all blood, his eyes beginning to glaze over in that obvious sign he’d passed into the next world.
Help! I needed help.
“Rygel!” I screamed.
“He can’t hear you, silly bitch,” Ja’Teel mocked. “They’ll be dead in seconds.”
Maybe, maybe the mind link still worked, I thought frantically. Oh, Holy Lady, make him hear me, make him hear me. Please make him hear me.
Inside my head, my body trapped under Bar’s furious protection, I sent my mental scream outward. “Rygel! Help us!”
“Princess, what’s wrong?”
Instantly, before I could gasp, Rygel popped into existence.
I tried to sit up, to scramble out from under Bar’s body, but he pushed me back, hissing, his talons sprawled across my chest. His long tufted tail lashed back and forth, but should Ja’Teel’s magic seek me out, it would find Bar first.
“Ah, Rygel,” Ja’Teel drawled as Rygel, in a frantic move, also tried to tackle the smoke-shadow and fell through it to the ground. “You know, there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Look, they’re already dead.”
My eyes whipped to Kel’Ratan at the same time Arianne shrieked again. His body slumped, his hair hanging over his face, hiding it. Kel’Ratan was too strong, I thought wildly, nothing can kill him, not even an arrow to his chest. Yet, the limp sway of his hands across the dirt and grass, the lifelessness of his body bespoke my worst fears. Ja’Teel killed him, after all.
I couldn’t help it, like a little girl, I screamed his name. He failed to answer, lift his head, berate me for my foolishness. Kel’Ratan!
Corwyn lay limp, on his face in the grass, Arianne weeping over him. Her hair concealed whether Ja’Teel’s magic still had him by the throat. By his unresponsiveness, Ja’Teel just killed him, too. I sagged back, unbelieving. In one swift move, Ja’Teel killed two strong men. How could he? How could the gods let this happen?
I lifted my head, my face streaming tears, my hair in my face as Rygel spoke.
“I can’t stop you,” Rygel hissed through his teeth, rising from his knees. “But I can take them out of the equation.”
Before I could draw another breath, both Kel’Ratan and Corwyn vanished.
I choked, my own fingers at my throat, casting about for them, frantic. Where were they? Kel’Ratan! Corwyn! Kel’Ratan!
Ja’Teel snarled. “What—impossible!”
Rygel, on his feet, brushed his hair from his eyes and smiled grimly. “I translocated them out from under you, cousin. Good luck in finding them.”
“You’re too late, anyway,” Ja’Teel snapped, his pale eyes sweeping the area. “They’re dead.”
“Oh, they’re quite alive,” Rygel said, brushing grass from his tunic. “I didn’t give you enough time. Right now they’re sore, but breathing.”
Lady, lady, please make it so, I prayed, on my own knees under Bar’s body, watching the confrontation between the two twins unfold. Please let him be right.
Galloping hooves heralded the arrival of Raine and the two horses. He flung himself from his saddle, his sword already spinning in his fist, its high-pitched song stinging my ears. He charged in, ready to fight, his weird grey eyes cold and deadly as he stalked the J
a’Teel-shape. Only Rygel’s raised hand stopped his rush. His wolf’s eyes found me, sheltered under Bar, and Arianne, sitting alone, her knees to her chin, hidden behind her hair. He halted his sword’s song, and waited, ready to pounce should a weakness in our enemy be found.
“Tell me, cuz,” Rygel asked, his tone conversational. “How’d you find us?”
Ja’Teel snorted. “That was easy. I watched yon Slave Master saddling his horse and knew where he was headed.”
He gestured contemptuously toward Raine with a wave of his dark hand. “He’d ride to swear his loyalty to this upstart prince, and betray his sworn King. His Majesty was most irked when I told him of Cephas’ betrayal.”
“A tracking spell.”
“Of course. I merely bided my time.”
Ja’Teel shrugged, indolent, before walking away. His back daringly turned to his powerful cousin, I marveled at his sheer audacity. “Per my master’s instructions, I’m not to harm him or the women.”
He half-turned back, his shadowed eyes thoughtful. “Yet, I can kill any of the others with impunity.”
“I’ll take you down first, moron.”
Ja’Teel half-shrugged, strolling across the meadow as if browsing the rich scents of a flower garden. “Who shall I kill first? Not you, my lad. I want you to watch as I dispatch your pals. I’ll suck out your life without laying a finger on you.”
He ambled about, as though making a choice, seeking my boys. Alun and Rannon watched the drama from several rods away, their swords in their hands. At my swift gesture, they backed away, taking Yuri and Yuras with them.
“How about the boy?” Ja’Teel said, turning toward a pale, frightened Tor standing nearby, his wooden sword in his fist. “I’ll do him. Tear his heart from his scrawny chest, and you’ll listen to him curse your name. And those idiot twins? They’re easy prey.”
To my horror, Left and Right stood to either side of Bar, nocked and ready bows pointed at Ja’Teel’s dark shadow. Well within reach of Ja’Teel’s magic. I started up, to get them away from me, when Bar’s taloned foot on my shoulder all but crushed me back into the grass.
Catch a Wolf Page 24