“Huh.”
Daks left out the part where the beast had apparently led the other mare back as well. They didn’t have time for him to try to wrap his own head around everything that had happened, let alone discuss it with the others.
“Come on. Let’s mount up,” Daks ordered as he moved to transfer one of the saddles to Horse. “Ravi, you’re with me. Fara and Shura will ride the two mares and take the packs.”
His side complained as he hefted the heavy saddle onto Horse’s back, but he ignored it. The scar would be ugly if he continued to rip it open over and over, but it certainly wouldn’t be his first.
“I don’t… I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if it triggers a Vision?” Ravi said, approaching him uncertainly.
“It’s a risk we’ll have to take. I’ll have you in front of me, so you won’t fall off either way. Besides, I’ve touched you often enough in the last couple of hours and nothing has happened.”
Ravi made an odd noise in the back of his throat but wouldn’t meet Daks’s gaze when he glanced at him.
“Give me your boot,” Daks ordered.
Ravi hesitated only a moment before stepping into his cupped palms and allowing Daks to boost him up. Then Daks climbed up behind him. Shura strapped the packs to the other saddled horse before helping Fara mount and then taking the mare without one for herself. The situation wasn’t ideal, but that had been the case since he’d stepped off the boat in Rassat, and he had a bad feeling that wouldn’t be changing anytime soon.
Chapter Six
DAKS KEPT them just inside the trees for better cover, rather than riding on the road. The going was slower, but everyone looked to be on their last legs anyway, and he wasn’t faring much better. Galloping down the packed dirt road to put as much distance between them and the town as they could was what his gut was telling him to do. But the risk to their necks and the horses’ legs in the dark wasn’t worth it.
At first Ravi had held himself stiffly in front of Daks, keeping a few inches between them, but as their ride wore on, exhaustion seemed to win and he slowly slumped back against Daks’s chest. When he was sure Ravi had nodded off, Daks wrapped an arm around his slim waist, just to keep him on the horse, of course. With Ravi’s warm back snuggled into his chest and his slow, even breathing lulling him, the brisk early spring air on Daks’s face and the fear of being followed were the only things keeping him awake. But when he found himself nodding off despite his best efforts, he called over his shoulder to Shura. “We need to find somewhere to rest before I fall off a horse for the first time since I learned to ride.”
Ravi stirred in his arms, and Daks tightened his hold despite the stab of pain in his side.
“We’re all tired,” Shura agreed, casting a worried glance back at Fara.
She tugged on the reins until her mare ambled to a halt, and then she swung out of the saddle. “I’ll take a look around.”
The other mare and Horse stopped as well, and Daks did his best to stay alert while he waited for Shura to return.
“What’s happening?” Ravi croaked, sitting up. “Where are we?”
“I’d say we’re halfway to the Kun river,” Daks replied. “Shura’s finding us a place to rest for a few hours.”
Fara urged her horse alongside theirs and said, “I’ve heard of a few places up closer to the crossing that are at least partially sheltered.”
Daks gave her a tired smile but shook his head. “I’d rather stay away from places anyone has heard of, but thank you,” he replied. “We just need a decent clearing shielded from the road where the horses can eat, drink, and rest, and we can do the same.”
“Do you think we’ve gone far enough?” Ravi asked, furrowing his brow.
Daks experienced an unexpectedly intense pull to smooth his fingers over that brow and gripped the reins tighter.
“I think we’ve gone as far as we should tonight,” he answered gruffly as he swung his leg over Horse’s rump and dropped to the ground. “Plus, now that I’ve had a chance to think a bit, I’m beginning to wonder if they’ll come after us at all.”
He groaned as he stretched tired muscles, but when he caught Ravi’s skeptical look, he explained, “There’s nothing to connect us to the search in Rassat. The soldiers just got into a drunken brawl in an alley with some travelers. Shura’s a bit distinctive, I’ll grant you. But the men might also be loath to admit two women and a man took them all out—with your help of course,” he added, giving Ravi a tired smile. “That should work in our favor. If the company is waiting for a contingent of brothers to join them, they can’t venture far. Add in how dark the alley was, and that they were probably doing something they weren’t supposed to, and we might be in the clear for a while, as long as no one really got too badly hurt.”
“It’s possible,” Fara agreed.
Shura chose that moment to emerge almost silently from the shadows, spooking one of the mares into snorting and making the rest of them jump. “I’ve found a glade not far from the river. There should be a bit of grazing for the horses, and it’s shielded from the road by a slope. Come.”
She moved to take the reins of Fara’s mare as the woman dismounted.
When Ravi didn’t move, Daks stepped in close and murmured, “We’ll need to walk the horses from here, since we’re going deeper into the woods and the grade gets a bit steep closer to the river.”
Ravi jerked and blinked sleepily at him.
“Oh. Right.” He swung his leg over and dropped awkwardly to the ground.
When he wobbled a little, Daks automatically shot out a hand to steady him, unaccountably pleased when Ravi didn’t flinch from his touch. Ravi was fairly adorable when he was too sleepy to scowl and hurl abuse. Although he was kind of cute when he was fuming too.
Daks huffed out a breath and shook his head as he shifted Horse’s reins to his right hand and moved to follow Shura’s retreating shadow. He obviously needed rest too.
They followed a deer track deeper into the stretch of woods between the river and the road. Daks wasn’t looking forward to the journey back uphill, but he’d be better rested then at any rate.
When the rushing of water was loud enough that they must have been within mere yards of the river, the land flattened out, and the thick tree trunks opened into a small glade ringed by half-buried moss-covered boulders that seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. His skin tingled, and the hairs on his arms lifted as he stepped into that circle of stones and the Singers’ tales his mother used to spin for him before bed came to mind.
Tired though he was, he opened his senses and searched with his gift. The hum inside the ring was definitely different from outside it, but the same could be said of any holy temple, old battlefield, or mage’s workroom. It could mean anything. He knew what trap spells and curses felt like, and this wasn’t it. There was no threat here, nothing active, only some faint energy clinging to the place like the river mist filling the air. None of the rest of their party seemed uneasy. Horse hesitated slightly before entering the ring, but that was it. Daks was getting spooked by nothing, and he gritted his teeth, irritated with himself.
To help settle both of them, he took the saddle off Horse and rubbed him down with a few handfuls of dead grass as Shura and Fara saw to their mounts and Ravi slumped in a heap on the ground away from everyone else. They’d need to do a more thorough inspection of the horses in daylight, but his arms and his side protested every movement by the time he’d done a cursory job of it. He gave the stallion’s rump a quick pat and walked away, not bothering to tie him up. If Horse hadn’t left him by now, he probably wasn’t going to.
“Help me with these branches,” Daks said, waving to catch Ravi’s attention.
They started dragging dead branches out of the woods and driftwood from the bank of the river and the women eventually joined in, making the job go that much faster. They could’ve gone without a fire, but the spring air wasn’t quite warm enough yet, and they’d had a hard and sometimes wet journey
so far. A little warmth and light to chase away the shadows and the misty damp was well worth the extra effort.
When Ravi turned to head back into the woods to get more wood, seemingly in a trance, Daks put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“We’ve got enough for now. Curl up somewhere and try to get some sleep.”
As a sign of how tired he must have been, Ravi merely turned on his heel, shuffled to one of the saddles they’d set on the ground, and slumped against it, wrapping his patched, threadbare cloak around himself. Daks frowned at the ragged bit of cloth as a cool breeze ghosted over his skin. He’d need to get something heavier for Ravi if they had to go too much farther north, or the man might freeze at night.
With a disgruntled sigh, he moved to his pack and pulled out his spare jerkin. After taking off his own cloak, he pulled the second jerkin on over his bloodstained clothes, then draped his cloak over Ravi’s unconscious form. He patently ignored Shura’s raised eyebrow as she hurried to the spot they’d cleared for the fire and set to work with flint and steel. Dead grasses from the glade and pine needles made starting it easy, despite the mist coming off the river, and the pine branches they’d collected soon popped and blazed cheerily enough to dry out the rest of the wood.
Shura groaned as she sat on the ground and held her hands out to the flames, making Daks smile.
“Both of you try to get some rest too. I’ll take first watch,” he offered.
“You sure? What about your wound?” Shura asked, frowning at his side.
He waved a dismissive hand, making the wound in question twinge. “It can wait. I was the one sitting on my ass while you two searched the town for aid. I had plenty of rest then. And I sure as hells don’t want you stitching me up half asleep by firelight. I’ll wake you in a few hours to take over, and we’ll worry about the wound then.”
She didn’t look completely happy about it, but she nodded wearily.
As he expected, both her and Fara dropped off nearly as fast as Ravi had, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and the fire to keep himself awake. He was almost glad he’d given up his cloak, because if he’d been any warmer, he might never have stayed conscious.
His gaze strayed to Ravi’s sleeping form often as the minutes ticked past, remembering the weight of Ravi’s body in front of him in the saddle and the heat of his breath as they stood crushed together in that alley. The first thing Daks planned to do when they were safely in Samebar was to find himself a willing bedpartner. And this time he wouldn’t be anywhere near as picky as he’d been in the Dog and Duck. Male, reasonably clean, breathing, and willing would be his only criteria.
He threw an envious look toward Shura and Fara’s huddled forms. The ladies had steadily shifted closer together in their sleep, until mere inches separated them. They were practically spooning each other. He glanced at Ravi again, and his lips curved wryly. What would happen if he just happened to curl up at Ravi’s back when Shura took the next watch?
Probably another punch to the face, he thought, his grin widening.
Still, Ravi’s occasional physical responses to him made him wonder.
With a sigh, Daks shook himself and forced his gaze back to their surroundings. He should really be trying to formulate a plan instead of daydreaming about getting laid.
IN WHAT seemed to have become the new norm since he’d met Daks, Ravi woke aching in nearly every part of his body and with no clear idea of where he was. At least this time he remembered going to sleep. Wood smoke and the crackle of a fire registered first, then a chill in the air that had him scowling and snuggling deeper into his cloak. Bracing himself for the pain, he tried to stretch his legs out, wincing when the chafed skin and strained muscles of his inner thighs made themselves known.
That was new.
He couldn’t wait to find out what this day would bring—a broken leg perhaps? Loss of a finger or toe?
After only a few halfhearted tries to get his body unlocked from the fetal position he’d slept in, he gave up and lifted his head instead. Opening sleep-crusted eyes in the predawn gloom, he noticed Shura first, where she crouched next to what was left of a fire. She gave him a brief, neutral nod of acknowledgment before lifting her gaze beyond the circle of firelight again. Mistress Sabin huddled beneath her cloak not far from Shura, and Daks lay to their right, presumably out cold as well.
Ravi frowned at the big lump and attempted to dredge up a glare, until he realized the man wasn’t wearing his cloak. Only then did the comforting extra weight on top of him register. Glancing down at himself, he recognized the dark, thick wool draped over him, and his stomach fluttered. He buried his nose in the fabric, but only for a moment, and only because it was chilled… not for any other reason.
A memory of heat rolling off a hard body as Ravi was pressed into a doorway surfaced, which in turn recalled the first Vision he’d had the night he’d met Daks. He scowled, sat up, and removed the cloak. He was not a pawn of fate, and this big lump and his crazy partner were not to be trusted—even if the man had looked pretty heroic riding off to Shura’s rescue, and he’d been quite gentle and solicitous when Ravi’s Vision had come on.
Nope. Not going there.
Stubbornly lifting his chin, he shoved the aches and pains aside and climbed to his feet. He felt Shura’s gaze follow him as he walked around the fire and dropped the warm, heavy cloak over Daks’s prone form. He hadn’t asked for it. He didn’t owe Daks anything for his kindness.
Last night he could have gotten himself killed. But while he hoped to dredge up a little energizing anger over that, he wasn’t particularly successful. First, because he was still tired. Second, because the ambush hadn’t been the women’s fault. And third, and most importantly, because he had no one to blame but himself for getting involved. He could have kept quiet about his Vision. He could’ve lied and left the women to their fates. Even when Daks left, he could’ve stayed inside the cabin and let things play out as they would. But he hadn’t done any of those things. Instead, he’d run after Daks like he thought he should be the hero in one of his grandfather’s old books, riding in on a white horse to save the day.
Idiot.
He clutched his bag to his chest as the sick thud of brick meeting skull echoed in his memory, swallowing as his gorge rose. He would have been perfectly happy to have lived his entire life without knowing what that sounded like… or what it felt like. That man might be dead now because of him. The tales never talked about that part. He was done being the hero. Never again.
After relieving himself in the woods, he moved back to the saddle he’d slept against, sat down on the cold, hard ground, and cleared his throat to get Shura’s attention.
“I can take over, if you’d like to get more rest,” he offered quietly enough he hoped he didn’t wake the other two.
She studied him for a few beats, making him shift nervously inside his cloak.
“I would take you up on that,” Shura finally murmured. “But sunrise is not far off, and we should be on our way as soon as we’re able. If you can rest more, I recommend you do so while you can.”
He started to ask a question, but she’d already turned her gaze away, dismissing him, so he let it go.
Too cold and unsettled to fall asleep again, he untied the water skin from the saddle behind him and took a long pull as he scanned their surroundings for something to distract him. Dying firelight flickered off spring leaves, new and dead grasses, weathered tree trunks, and worn, half-buried boulders, but not much else. The scene was actually quite peaceful if he discounted what might be lurking in the semidarkness beyond. The horses seemed unperturbed, though, so that was probably a good sign nothing waited to jump out at them.
A flicker or light drew his attention back to the stones, and he squinted more closely at them. He’d been too tired to pay much attention last night, but looking at them now, they formed an obvious circle that couldn’t have been natural.
A small tremor of giddy excitement passed through him. C
ould this be a Singers’ ring? An actual Singers’ ring?
He clutched the bulky shape of the book hidden in his bag and smiled, remembering the countless hours he’d spent in his grandfather’s home, tucked away with forbidden volumes of history and lore—books the Brotherhood had banned but his family had held on to in secret. His smile fell. At least when it came to protecting knowledge, his family had been brave enough to do the right thing.
Shaking off the old bitterness in favor of something far more pleasant, he set the water skin aside, stood, and approached the nearest stone. If the Singers actually existed, one of them might have touched this stone with his own hands, done wonderful feats of magic with it. Veins of translucent milky white running through the gray rock periodically captured and reflected the flicker of firelight. Intrigued, he leaned closer and reached out to run a finger along one such vein, but before he could touch it, he was suddenly knocked aside. Letting out a startled yelp, he lost his balance and landed hard on his butt.
Four long white knobby legs ending in gleaming black hooves filled his vision. He glared up at the stallion until Horse dipped its head and leveled that unsettling blue gaze at him. Quickly breaking eye contact as a strange, unpleasant shiver ran along his skin, Ravi rolled away from the animal and shot to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” Shura called sharply.
Ravi huffed and threw a glare in the stallion’s general direction without meeting its eyes. “I have no idea. This dumb horse just came up and knocked me over.”
“Wha—?” Daks croaked, sitting up. His hair was even more of a mess than usual, framing his scruffy, stubbled face in a dark, bushy halo that had been matted down on one side.
Ravi frowned even harder to smother a threatening giggle, dusted off his ass, and moved back to the fire with the others, away from the damned horse. He’d apparently also woken Mistress Sabin, because the woman stirred out of her cloak cocoon and blinked owlishly at him across the dying flames.
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