Gin skidded to a stop. “We can’t really afford to be picky, can we? Maybe I can contact the other guardians and ask them.” She closed her eyes to concentrate, opening up her barriers to Sath to help him connect with the spirits of the guardians gone before them. They were the only two living guardians, but she hoped that at least her parents or Sath’s father would hear them and answer. Sath was silent for a moment, but he didn’t sense anything.
“Have you found them? I don’t hear anything.” He opened one eye to look at Gin, whose eyebrows were knotted in frustration.
Gin opened her eyes and frowned. “I don’t either. But it isn’t an exact science, you know. I can’t just call them up any time I want.” They struck out again, but every so often, Gin would pull Sath to a stop to try again to contact the spirits of the guardians. He wanted her to try while they kept moving, but she insisted that they had to stop so that she could properly concentrate. Finally, she looked around, admiring the beauty of the landscape. They were almost to the treeline, and the similarity to her homeland was startling. “This is a beautiful forest, Sath, are you sure we can’t stay for a while?” She looked back the way they had come and noted the placement of the sun on the horizon. “It will be dark soon, look how low the sun is! Can we make the tunnel before nightfall?”
Sath sighed. “If you had listened to me about ten minutes ago and we were on our way now, we could, but the longer we linger…”
“Oh, no you don’t, this isn’t my fault,” Gin said, her annoyance clear in her tone. “Come on, there has to be a place we can stay for the night. I can speak to the people in the house if we can find it again.” She shook off the invisibility magic and headed the opposite way from the tunnel, and Sath stood still a moment, watching her walk away. “Come on, Sath, I can feel you staring at the back of me. Keep up, or I’ll tell them you’re my pet and need to be kept in a barn.”
“Not funny,” Sath mumbled as he hurried after her. When Gin lost her invisibility, Sath’s cover fell away too, but he was too focused on her to notice. She ran up to the first house she saw, delighted that no candles were burning inside, and the door seemed slightly ajar.
“Here, this one is empty,” she said as she pushed the door further open to peer inside. “Oh, dear spirits, I see why…” Sath ran up behind her and leaned into the doorway. He muttered a banishing curse for an evil spirit in Qatunari as he took in the scene before them. “Do’or kahrahna, m’aakindi!”
A wood elf male was laid out across a table in the middle of the room, his throat cut. Dried blood made a trail from his neck down to a circle of blood on the floor. His emerald eyes were vacant as they stared up at the exposed log beam ceiling of the cottage. Another body was slumped over in a chair nearby, a female wood elf, but her skin was too pale for her to still be alive. Gin stood frozen in the doorway, her hands pressed to her mouth to keep herself from screaming.
“Wait here, Gin,” Sath said, not knowing if she would obey, but also not waiting to find out. He moved with total stealth as he entered the cottage, sniffing the air for traces of anything living. Only the metallic tang of blood filled his nostrils. Magic had been used here as well; Sath could sense the aftershocks still hanging in the air as well as the charred stench of fire magic. He drew close to the table and could see the blackened skin around the male’s hands. Defensive magic? Sath rubbed a hand over the top of his head. From the armor worn by the dead couple, he had already suspected that they were druids, but the charred flesh and leftover magic stink confirmed it. But who had done this?
Respectfully he closed the male’s eyes and then approached the female. Her dark hair hung in ropes that had come loose from a bun still perched precariously on the back of her head. Sath had seen hairstyles like that on wood elves only in books that he had studied in the Outpost while still hunting druids and rangers—and on Gin, when she was serving as the Nature Walker. It was the color of Gin’s hair as well, a fact that gave him undue pause for several moments as he studied the corpse. She wore the rings of marriage common to Gin’s kind; he had gotten paid handsomely for so many of those after he’d been out hunting. Carefully Sath lifted her head to find a ragged wound across her throat. She had died slowly, in horrible pain, and most likely watching her mate die on the table across from her. Sath closed her pale blue dead eyes and let her head hang back as he had found it.
“Who…did this?” Gin hissed at him from the doorway. Sath turned around and shrugged his shoulders at her. He placed a finger to his lips. All of the color had drained from her face, and she was gripping the doorway with white-knuckle ferocity. At least she wasn’t screaming.
“I don’t know, but it was a magic-user,” Sath whispered back. “Stay put while I check the back rooms. Whoever it was might still be here.” He padded back through the large room into a smaller one but found only a bed and some clothes were thrown about inside. The killer had clearly been looking for something and had turned the bedroom inside out to find it. Dropping silently to all fours, Sath lowered himself down to look under the bed and found nothing there. He got back to his feet and stuck his head out into the larger room. “Clear, come on in,” he whispered. Gin stood very still and did not move from her spot by the door.
“No. I can’t…” Gin’s voice was quivering—with anger.
“Gin, you’ve seen death before, you need to come in here with me so that if whoever did this comes back they won’t get you as well,” Sath pleaded with her in hushed tones. He could see sparks forming around her hands and had to get her inside before she attracted attention. There was one way to break her concentration, but he hated to do it. “Please, Ginny…”
Gin’s eyes flared as she met his gaze. “Do not call me that,” she hissed. As quickly as she could, she dashed past the grim scene at the table and darted past Sath into the bedroom. He closed the door behind her and sank to the floor for a moment. “Any clues back here?” Gin paced about the tiny room.
“No, none, only that someone was clearly looking for something in here,” Sath said. “I have never seen that kind of wound before either. I can only imagine what kind of weapon made them, as jagged as they are—almost looks like an animal attacked them, but then there’s the state of them, laid out on the table like that.”
“Ikedrians,” Gin spat. “Abominations. They are the antithesis of all that is right and holy and good. They are the twisted creations of the Father of the Underworld, Ikara.” Sath stared up at her as she ranted. He had never seen this side of her—this rage—not even after the wizard took her. “Look at the cruelty, making her watch while her mate died on the table? That is the calling card of the Ikedrians. They are the absolute masters of sadism, and that is what happened to that poor couple out there.” She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve, wincing as it hit the rough chainmail of her tunic. “Stop staring at me. I know that my home is named for an Ikedrian, but I also know that I might still have Cursik had he not fallen in love with one of them.”
Sath covered his face with his hands for a moment, and then rubbed them over the top of his head in frustration. “I think we need to stay here and keep hidden for now. Tomorrow, when the sun comes up, we will make for the treeline tunnel as fast as we can. From there, we will hopefully pass back through the Void to home—or at least somewhere on our side of the world,” Sath said, hoping that she would accept his rambling as a viable plan. The truth was that he had no idea what to do, and that fact was almost as terrifying as the thought of anything happening to Khujann…or Gin.
“I certainly hope you are right,” Gin said. “Remember, it was a long time after the gods and demigods fought for control and were beaten back by the races of Orana that we could safely travel at all through the Void. As recently as the Forest War, my kind either traveled through the bond or across the land.” Her brows furrowed. “Sometimes I think that Draoch of the Trees was wrong to stop teaching the young to use the bond. We have it, but I’m not even sure that you and I can use that part of the bond—Ben only
ever used it to find me and then transport himself to me with magic when…” She paused a moment. “Well, also, the only creature I know back home that has the ability is a drake in—well, a place that Ben took me, and while I don’t want to ever go back there I suppose that I could if it meant that -”
“Now, stop that. We got here, we will find a way to get back,” Sath said, trying to sound comforting. “For now, though, we will stay here and rest until morning. We need the rest. Agreed?” Gin nodded and looked around the room as though lost. “What’s wrong?”
“I was looking for a place to stretch out, but…” She came across the room and sat down next to him. “I don’t need it really—I don’t think I’ll sleep anyway.”
“Me either,” Sath replied, smiling inwardly at how close she was. They sat in silence, Sath looking through his maps from his pack and Gin studying her spell book as she often did when she was nervous. A soft thunk from beside him drew Sath’s attention, and he chuckled at the sight of Gin’s spellbook on the floor. Her head was hanging forward, and her breathing was deep and even. She needed the sleep, clearly. Sath gathered her into his arms, careful not to wake her, and held her close as he leaned his head back against the door. It was looking like a long night ahead.
Eleven
The Log Cabin
Gin opened her eyes slowly, not sure where she was. It had been a long time since she had slept that deeply, and she wasn’t sure how much time had passed since the last time she had slept in her bed in Qatu’anari. The wooden floor under her was hard, but she smiled as she recognized Sath’s traveling cloak folded up under her head as a pillow. She had been too hard on him. She knew deep down that he really did care for her, he just had difficulty showing it. She could work with that.
“Sath?” she said, rubbing her eyes to try and bring the room into focus. She was still in the house near the forest that they found last night, but Sath was nowhere to be seen. Alarmed, Gin jumped to her feet and grabbed her staff from its resting place by the door. “SATH!” she called out. His furry head appeared at the window outside, one clawed finger up to his lips.
“Ikara’s TEETH, Gin, ssh! If we are found here, it will look like we killed these poor folks,” he hissed at her. She clambered over to the window, climbing over the broken bed frame and pushing scattered blankets and clothing out of her way. Peering out, she saw two graves with stones at the head of each and Sath leaning on a shovel. Frowning, she sprinted through the now clean living area and out the door to where he was, around the back.
“What are you doing?” she whispered. “Sath, did you bury those two wood elves we found in the house?”
“Of course I did. I don’t know your burial rites, and I needed to get the place cleaned up in case we were surprised, so—this was wrong, wasn’t it?” Sath asked, taking note of the fire raging in Gin’s ice-blue eyes.
“So wrong, Sath. SO wrong. My people are not buried in the ground. We are cremated, and then we return to the ground to help the plants to grow. Their souls may be stuck in the Underworld now!” She stamped her tiny foot in frustration.
Sath leaned on the handle of the shovel he had found in a shed behind the house. “Gin, I couldn’t have known that, and we don’t really have a way to cremate them without attracting attention,” he said with a sigh. “This was the best I could do in a hurry.”
“Why did you have to do anything?” Gin said as she crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself tightly. “Haven’t you done enough to my kind already?”
“You’d best take care what you say to me, Nature Walker. That one was over the line.” Sath rumbled as he spoke. Gin scowled back at him but said nothing, and he sighed loudly. “We need to get moving if we are going to get out ahead of whatever or whoever it was that killed these two poor souls.” He tossed the shovel to the ground and wiped his hands off on his armor. “I sound like I’m insane,” he muttered as he pushed past her and back into the house.
Gin slowly walked over to the graves and knelt down. “Mother Sephine,” she said quietly, “guide these gentle souls into the afterlife. Do not penalize them for the method in which they were laid to rest; Sath did not know the way that we do things. I beg of you to release their souls from the underworld so that they may find each other in happiness in the afterlife.” She gathered up some dirt nearby and tossed a small handful onto the top of each grave, speaking ancient Elvish words of good fortune and safe travel as she did. She stood, arms again wrapped around her midsection, and backed away from the twin mounds of dirt before her.
Sath emerged from the house with their belongings but remained silent. He felt horrible for disrespecting the druids that had lived in that house, but he did not know the wood elf death rites. He just knew that if something had been done incorrectly when his sister died, either in the preparation of her body or carrying out a warrior’s funeral for her, he would have been just as upset as Gin was now. He started toward her, but she held up a hand behind her.
“Don’t move, Sath,” she whispered. “Someone is coming, to the east, coming fast along the trail.” Her tracking abilities always amazed Sath, and this time was no different. He turned slowly and looked in the direction that she had indicated, and sure enough, he could just make out a figure, mounted and moving very quickly in their direction. He heard Gin speaking some ancient elvish words that he recognized as an invisibility spell and then breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks for the ability to see invisible things, Gin,” he whispered. “I would have freaked out if I couldn’t see you…what?” She was staring at him in horror. “Is there something else coming?”
“I can still see you,” she hissed back. “My magic is not working. Sath! My magic is not working!” Her eyes were wide with shock.
“We need to get in the house though I bet whoever that is has already seen us,” Sath said. He motioned for her to run, and thankfully she was not frozen in place this time but ran toward him. They hurried inside the house, and Sath slammed the door behind him, lowering the heavy bolt on the inside and then moving a blood-stained chair up under the bolt to hold it fast. They moved into the bedchamber again and behind the upended bed, and Gin pulled bedclothes up and over them to hide them from sight.
“Now what?” Sath wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, but she pushed him back. She was unnerved, not afraid, and he wasn’t helping by treating her like a child. Gin patted his arm and then wound her tiny fingers into his fur: he couldn’t help smiling a bit. The hooves of a horse sounded closer and closer to the house and soon came to a stop. Gin and Sath held their breath. They could hear metallic boots make a clank as they came out of what could only be armored stirrups, and then hit the ground with a thud. Footsteps rang out as the unknown rider got closer to the cabin. The horse whinnied loudly, startling Gin and nearly causing her to cry out. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
“Thangur Daer!” a female voice called from outside the house. “Misdis Daer!” Sath looked at Gin, who was paying rapt attention. “Show yourselves! I am sent by the council in the Great Forest to find you!”
“SATH!” Gin hissed at him as quietly as she could. “That’s Elvish; ancient, but I understand it! We don’t need to worry!” She struggled to free herself from the blanket, but Sath held her fast.
“Gin, it might be someone that just speaks that language, like you speak mine. That could be an Ikedrian spy just waiting to…’
“Of course it isn’t,” she snapped at him, finally freeing herself and darting out from under the blankets. “You stay here, let me talk to her.” Before he could grab an arm or a leg, she had crossed the room and was running toward the front door. Sath cursed loudly but remained still, his keen Qatu hearing on high alert.
Gin took a deep breath and then opened the front door slowly, not sure what she would find on the other side. A young-looking wood elf female stood by a horse in chain mail that matched hers. She stroked his nose and whispered to him, then turned back to the cabin, annoyance etc
hed into every inch of her face. She glared at Gin. “Who are you, and where are Thangur and Misdis?” she demanded. Gin put her hands up in front of her to show that she was unarmed.
“I do not know Thangur and Misdis,” Gin replied. “I am not sure you can be understanding me because I have not heard your dialect since I was a young girl. My name is Ginolwenye Clawsharp, of the Royal House of Qatu’anari, and I mean you not to harm.”
“You talk like a child. How did you come to be in Than and Mis’s house? I am Leithienil, a sentry of the champions of the Great Forest. How do I not know you, my sister? Have you come here on a hunt for the Mother Dragon?”
“Greetings and well met, Leithienil. I have come from far away, from Qatu’anari, that is how you do not know me.”
“Impossible. All of our kind is from the Great Forest. No one but the giant cats lives on that island. Where are Thangur and Misdis Dael? Why do you lie to me and not answer my questions?” She drew her sword from its scabbard and held it out toward Gin. “You will answer my questions now.” Gin took a step back toward the door.
“When we arrived last night, seeking shelter, we…found the house empty,” Gin said, the lie filling her mouth like sour milk. She hated lying, but she couldn’t let Leithienil find Sath hiding in the house. She feared that if Sath was correct about the time discrepancy, the wood elf would only remember him as the Bane of the Forest or worse.
“Ah. Perhaps they have gone on ahead back to the Great Forest, and I have missed them,” Leithienil said. She leaned toward Gin, raising one of her blonde eyebrows. “You won’t mind if I look around to make sure as you are on your way, will you?”
Darkness: A Guardians of Orana Novel Page 10