*
Niam walked until he was far enough away from Davin and Maerillus that they couldn’t see him. Then he turned and made his way quickly into the Vandin camp. Winding his way through the tents without walking across one of those boxes wasn’t as tricky as he thought it was going to be. The fact that he could feel one as drew close to it helped. As soon as he felt like his skull was beginning to fill with rocks, he stopped and moved slowly in a different direction until the feeling receded. Then all he had to do was skirt around the affected area.
Niam sulked as he walked. When Davin used his bossy voice, Niam knew that there was no reasoning with him. He didn’t feel like reasoning, anyway. All he knew was that Bode couldn’t be allowed to get away with what he was doing. And Niam wasn’t about to sit still and swallow the idea of warning Bode away as if the stupid idiot would listen to anything Davin had to say. Bode was little higher up the animal chain than a hungry cat in a henhouse. All he understood was violence and force. The best anyone could do was slow the pack of fools down long enough for Lord Joachim’s men to catch up with them.
That lot had come in on a westbound trail, which meant it had taken them twice as long, even with horses, to get from Pirim Village to the camp because that trail took them all the way around Siler’s Lake. Eventually, it branched. One road led to the lake valleys, the other toward the coast and larger towns and villages where the land flattened out.
If Niam could slow them down, they could make it back to Pirim Village, tell Joachim, and his men could detain Bode and his friends before they ever made it back. Bode would never have ventured along the path Niam and his friends had taken because he wasn’t allowed onto the Sartor property. And Niam knew he could slip around to the far side of the camp and do what he needed to do without Davin or Maerillus being any the wiser!
The Dread Lords Rising Page 21