Chasers of the Wind

10

The first time we came to a halt, Shen punched Midge in the face for running off and taking Bamut with him. To my surprise, the runt did not hit back. It seemed that for the time being he had decided to stay out of any scuffles, since he didn’t have the upper hand. And Layen and I were not too fond of the degenerate.

Midge and Bamut behaved as meek as lambs and little by little the atmosphere stopped being so tense. Offenses took a backseat to survival. We were all stuck with one another, so we had to pretend that nothing had really happened.

Toward nightfall on the fourth day, we stopped for the night in a sycamore grove. We’d covered a lot of ground over the course of the day, and we could allow ourselves to rest until morning with a clear conscience.

“Are you sure it’s safe here?” Midge asked me.

“Judge for yourself. We’ve been struggling through the wilderness at a trot for four days. We’ll head out for the road tomorrow. We’re going the right direction. If there was a pursuit, it’s turned back long ago. Otherwise they would have picked up our trail. I doubt a small fire would do much harm. Besides, eating partridges raw isn’t very good for you. Personally, I prefer my birds cooked.”

Midge listened sullenly, nodded to show that he was in agreement with the arguments I set forth, and he then poked Bamut in the side. He stood up, groaning discontentedly, and the two of them left to gather kindling for the fire. I followed them with my eyes until they disappeared behind the trees. Layen was dozing, leaning against a tree with her legs tucked under her. The journey had exhausted her. She still hadn’t recovered her strength after what had happened in the village.

I took my jacket off and carefully, so as not to wake her, covered my wife with it.

“Keep an eye out,” I asked of Shen in a whisper.

The healer was plucking the partridge I’d shot and he nodded without looking up from his work. Neither I nor Layen nor he had spoken about what happened in Dog Green. We assiduously avoided that topic, sheltering behind the lack of time. In part, that was the truth. The debilitating foot marches always ended with a halt for the night, where everyone had a hurried bite to eat and fell into exhausted sleep until morning. Sometimes we didn’t even have the strength to post a watch. Then we were traveling again, and we couldn’t talk. I did not want Midge and Bamut to overhear us.

Our “runaways” knew nothing about Shen’s strange talents. Perhaps that was for the best. The lad was evidently not at all eager to share his secret with those around him.

I grabbed my bow and walked off in the direction in which my “good friends” had headed not too long ago. I didn’t trust that pair before, and after their flight, there was no way. Without Whip to look after them, Midge had become a worrisome problem, a thorn in my side, especially since Bamut obeyed him unconditionally. Layen and I were lucky that Shen was on the outs with them. But the healer also required a careful eye, since he could not only heal but also cast incandescent fire. Any fool could see that the lad was quite dangerous and that he might have his own reasons for sending us to our eternal rest without any encouragement from my brothers in arms. I wanted to get rid of them all, but I wasn’t sure I could do it without real damage to my own hide.

Besides spying on our wood gatherers, I needed to walk a circuit around our camp for the night. There is little joy in getting cozy near a gove’s lair or a den of shpaguks. And waking up in their stomachs isn’t any fun, either.

Besides all that, I was worried about the last bit of ground we’d covered. I’ve been naturally suspicious since childhood. But recently my suspicious nature has been responding very sensitively to any oddity. As soon as we hit the forest, I sensed that someone was shadowing us. However, “sensing” will only get you so far. If we were being followed, they were doing it skillfully. Yesterday afternoon I’d fallen behind my companions and set up a small ambush. The sensation of being shadowed instantly disappeared. Either I really had imagined it all, or the unknown dodger had become more careful.

I didn’t tell anyone about my suspicions. Not even Layen. They didn’t need to be bothered for nothing.

The sky was still light, but here between the powerful trunks of the enormous sycamores, thick twilight reigned. The forest seemed gloomy and vacant as it prepared for sleep. There were no paths, not even animal trails. I had to walk randomly and to watch under my feet so that I did not tread on dry branches or trip over the black braids of the roots protruding from the ground.

Without false modesty, I can say that I know how to walk in a forest. I acquired the experience in my youth, when I’d been forced to wander around Sandon for a time. Even now that forest has no love for outsiders, and at that time humans were strictly forbidden from entering the kingdom of the Highborn. There was no peace treaty between the Empire and that race, and so anyone who entered that wilderness had to put all his hope in his own cunning and experience.

After some time, I could hear the disgruntled grumbling of Bamut. “It’s so dark, it’s as if my eyes have been plucked out!”

“If you keep horsing around out here, you’re going to have to feel your way back by touch,” replied Midge. Immediately after these words, the sound of a branch snapping rang out.

“Come on, you, damn…. You just try and teach me how to gather wood.”

“You need to move more quickly. We’ll lose our way in an hour or so. I’ve heard of men wandering through the pines and dying of hunger, and all the while, there was the path. Right next to them.”

“It’s only like that when there’s magic, damn it,” drawled Bamut petulantly. Another branch snapped.

“And who told you there isn’t any here? This spot looks like it’s cursed. I wouldn’t be surprised if something nasty happened to us.”

Bamut laughed nervously and, judging by the rustling of the leaves, began to hurry up. Trying not to make a sound, I crept closer and watched them from behind a tree. They’d stopped a bit farther off. There was kindling nearer to the camp, but for some reason they decided to wander farther into the thicket.

“Hey, tell me this, you, damn…. Why should we be out here doing everything while they’re resting?”

“Shut up.”

“No! Why am I always on the bottom? I’m sick to death of it.”

“Are you suggesting we bleed them dry?” asked Midge sneeringly.

“Yeah. I think about those ten thousand sorens all the time.”

“Don’t you even think about that! It’s not worth it!”

“But what could be better than money?”

“Well, for example, a proper grave.”

“Ha!”

“I realize that it’s not as nice as sorens, but you’re more likely to get that than Joch’s reward.”

“Damn…. What do you mean?”

“What are you? Completely stupid?” Midge suddenly bristled. “You’re constantly forgetting about Layen. Were you sleeping when she turned half that village into rubble?”

Bamut got down on his knees and began collecting kindling. For a short while the crossbowman grumbled angrily, trying to think up a suitable reply.

“Good steel will stop any lousy magic if you go about it right. Wasn’t it you who slit the necromancer’s throat?”

“Of course it was me. The sorcerer didn’t know our worth. But Layen knows what you and I are capable of. I don’t want to go near her, even when she’s asleep. There’s also Gray. He’s quite good at setting people’s souls free when he’s backed against a wall. It’s too risky.”

“There are three of us and two of them.”

“Those two could stand against five. Besides, do you really think Shen is on our side?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I talked to him.”

“When?”

“I managed it when we stopped yesterday.”

“Well, now. I’m not very sure of him.”

“Damn…. It doesn’t mean a thing that you don’t like the lad. Whip got along with him just fine.”

“And where is Whip? He’s rotting with a crushed skull in some dung pit. Melot forgive me for such words. I tell you again; I don’t trust Shen. Besides, it makes a lot of difference if you divide ten thousand between two or three people.”

“So you’ve decided to do this after all?” Bamut was clearly thrilled.

“Deciding does not mean acting. We’ll wait for the right moment. If one presents itself. But right now it’s too early to make a move. Gray is guiding us. If we pick him off, we’ll never get out of this forest.”

“And what if your moment doesn’t happen before we get to Al’sgara?”

“Then you’ll have to forget about the money. Let’s go. It’s almost dark.”

Midge and Bamut picked up the gathered firewood and walked off in the direction of camp.

Well, well, well.

My suspicions about those alley cats were completely justified.

I restrained myself from going after them. In spite of the perils of coexistence, the lads could come in handy. Spare hands are never really spare in the wilderness. But if we should happen to chance upon a gove, I’d send the three of them down its gullet without any remorse.

While Layen was beside me, there was no point in worrying overmuch that they would send us to the Blessed Gardens. I don’t think they’ll strike until we get out onto the highway. We’ll just have to get rid of them when we leave the forest.

I began to make my way toward the footpath we’d walked along all day. It was located about three hundred yards to the right of where Midge and Bamut had been hanging about. The sky had taken on a deep violet color and the first stars were shining forth. The Serpent was perfectly visible, and the Blue Flame on its tail was shining brightly, pointing to the south. I took my bearings and moved on.

I hate walking through the nighttime forest. It’s not a business for humans. Even though I’d known experienced trackers in my youth who could move through the darkness of the dense wilderness as if they were walking down a city street, I did not possess such skills. I had to practically push my eyes out of their sockets so I wouldn’t crash into some tree trunk. It didn’t help very much. The moon, as luck would have it, was still not out.

I stopped and, holding my bow at the ready, stood behind a tree. My eyes were of no use whatsoever so I had to listen, hoping to catch a suspicious rustle. But the minutes dragged on and nothing happened. Everything was the same as usual in a nighttime forest. The wind sighed through the treetops, and somewhere a roused bird gave a shriek.

Well then. I’d have to hope that there really wasn’t anyone chasing us. I crossed the path, once again delved into the thicket, and made my way back to where I’d found Midge and Bamut. Ahead of me the warm light of the fire twinkled. I smelled roast fowl and my stomach rumbled urgently. I was already dreaming of my share of partridge when a twig crunched softly to my left, very close by.

My arrow sped off into the darkness before I had a chance to think about what I was doing. The sound that followed a moment later let me know that I had missed and hit a tree. I shouted loudly, alerting those sitting by the fire about the danger, and sent a second arrow at the rustling, which was moving away from me. I had no idea if it hit or not.

Damn it! I was nearly taken unawares! If the person lying in wait had not stumbled over that miraculous twig, who knows how it all would have played out.

“What happened?” Layen ran up to me first.

Midge and Shen hurried after her with burning branches instead of torches. Bamut was armed with his crossbow.

“There was someone here,” I said, not taking my eyes off the direction where my arrow had fled.

“Who?” asked Shen, scowling.

“How should I know? You have a light. Check the ground. Maybe some tracks were left behind. Over there. And over there.”

We found the first arrow fairly quickly; it was lodged in a sycamore. Not far from it we found the broken twig that had saved my life.

“That means nothing.” The healer didn’t believe me. “It could have been like that for a year.”

“I suppose I just heard it crack in my head,” I responded sourly.

“I shouldn’t wonder,” he snapped. “There’s too little light to see anything.”

A glowing ball of turquoise light appeared in Layen’s hands. It was bright enough to light up the forest around us for a distance of two yards. I noticed that when my sun cast the spell, Midge winced. Excellent. That would make him be careful and not act recklessly.

“Is that enough?” she asked, holding out the glowing ball to Shen.

The healer took it in his palm without flinching. Then he looked at me questioningly.

“I shot twice.”

“Where?”

Once they’d received the direction they began to search.

“Here it is!” Bamut shouted back to us after a minute.

We hurried over to him and saw that he was twirling an arrow in his hands. Midge took it and raised it up to his eyes.

“You nicked someone after all. There’s blood on it.” The small assassin cautiously tasted the bloody arrowhead with the tip of his tongue. “Human.”

“You don’t say? Have you tried any other kinds?” asked Shen spitefully.

“Screw you!” roared Midge instantly.

“Cut it out,” ordered Layen. “Whether it’s human or not, one thing is clear—there really was something here. I think we need to post a watch at night. Otherwise we might not wake up the next day.”

Her suggestion was met with an approving silence.

I finally got a chance to speak with Layen in private during our halt the following day. The important conversation had been delayed by five days, but there was nothing I could do about that now. She had answered all my mental appeals with obstinate silence.

While the threesome imposed on us by Mols were taking off their boots and sprawling out to rest under the tall golden pines, we walked away to a small glade teeming with raspberries. Before we could get to a good place to speak without witnesses we had to scramble through the brush. Along the way, my wife took the opportunity to gather an entire handful of the large, fragrant berries and now, leaning against a tree trunk warmed by the sun, she was chewing on them thoughtfully.

After her communion with the necromancer’s staff, she was still pale, but the sickly, anemic gleam had disappeared from her skin and her hair was no longer lackluster. Enough of her weakness had disappeared that I couldn’t help but rejoice.

“How are you?”

“Huh?” Distracted by her weighty thoughts, she looked at me for a moment without comprehending what I was talking about. “Better. Much better. Thank you. What do you think? Who’s following us?”

“I’d like to know that myself. He’s been following us since the first day.”

“I can’t say that this worries me all that much, dear.”

“You’re right. He could have attacked us a while ago, if he’d wanted to. The first three nights all of us slept like logs. The man’s had a heap of chances.”

“You noticed how experienced he is. Those idiots didn’t even look at the tracks, but did you see them?”

“Well…” I paused. “Let’s just say that, from what he left behind, you could say he’s not an ordinary man. There were almost no prints on the ground. It’s not the first time he’s worked in the forest. And he fled from my arrows with ease, while I would have shot down almost any other. He knows the forest well. But if I’m honest, he concerns me far less than what happened in the village. You don’t want to speak mentally, but maybe now that we’re alone you can explain everything that happened to me.”

Layen smiled understandingly and dropped another berry into her mouth. Her expression became surpassingly melancholy.

“You really don’t understand anything, do you?”

“What don’t I understand?”

“Ness,” she said sweetly. “I ‘don’t want’ to speak with you in mental whispers only because I can’t. It’s not that I don’t want to. You note the difference?”

My expression was undoubtedly quite foolish, and my sun sighed in disappointment.

“Hmmm… Those who use the Gift call this an attenuation of the spark. The sorcerer’s khilss required all my capabilities. It almost drank me dry. The staff constantly requires vital and magical power. It feeds on them; otherwise it will decline to obey. And then that woman came—”

“Who was she?” I interrupted.

Layen looked at me searchingly and ate another berry without replying. She wiped her hands, stained red from the juice. She imperceptibly shook her shoulders.

“She was very strong. So strong, in fact, that I assume that she is one of the Damned.”

I didn’t realize immediately that this wasn’t a joke.

“A Damned? That’s ridiculous! She wouldn’t have died so easily!”

“Who said it was easy?” Her piercing gaze sent a shudder traveling through me. “I can only call it a miracle that we were able to face her at all. She didn’t take us seriously, and we caught her off guard.”

For some reason it was beyond my comprehension that one of the Damned could have crossed our path. While they frighten you with such tales in your childhood, you stop believing in them after you grow up.

“You think this is nonsense?”

“Just a bit,” I replied unwillingly. “You have to admit, it’s very hard to believe that not a few days ago, I sent one of the Sextet to the Abyss with my own hand.”

“As you will, dear. I can’t make you believe. If it’s easier for you, you can just consider her a very strong sorceress and that’s all. Without any names. But she was strong, that’s the truth. In case you didn’t notice, I lost good and proper when I came up against her.”

“On the plus side Shen managed quite well,” I said, changing the subject of the conversation.

Layen twisted her mouth as if I’d presented her with a cup of vinegar.

“I’ll say. He definitely managed.”

“What is our mutual friend?”

“A Healer.”

“I know that.”

“Don’t confuse the concepts. He’s not a doctor, he’s a Healer. More a shaman than anything else.”

“Why? Is there a difference?”

“A vast difference. Healing is one of the rarer aspects of the Gift.”

What an idea!

“Hmm. In other words, the lad is similar to you?”

“Yes and no. He has a spark, but it differs from mine. And from the sparks of the Walkers. And from the Embers. And from the necromancers. I can’t say that it’s very strong in him; if anything it’s the opposite. It doesn’t shine very brightly, so he doesn’t have very much potential just yet.”

“Not great? He dealt with that minx effortlessly. Thwack! And that’s that!”

“That was nothing more than chance,” she replied tranquilly. “Healers are very rare in our world. One out of ten thousand who possess the Gift carry such a talent within themselves. You can count people like him on the fingers of one hand. Plus, he’s a man! As far as I can recall, the Sculptor was the only man who possessed such talents. All the other Healers are women.”

“I don’t understand how the ability to heal people with magic would aid building.”

“Everyone with the Gift can heal with magic. Even the necromancers. But no one has the ability to do it quite like the Healers. Their Gift is focused specifically on healing. So much so that they can return the dead to life. The flip side of necromancy, if you will. The result is not an empty, vicious shell, but a real living person. And the abilities of the Sculptor surpass our understanding. That’s why no mage today can duplicate his creations, or even come close. The Gates of Six Towers, the academy of the Walkers in the Rainbow Valley, the eight Spires, the palace of the Emperor, the Tombs of the Fallen, not to mention the Paths of Petals.”

“Umm…” I paused, taking in the list. “Why have I never heard anything about Healers?”

“I told you, people with that kind of spark are born very rarely. And they don’t go running around the cities and villages hoping to heal as many people as possible. The last Healer was a Mother of the Walkers. Five generations ago. Since then, no one has been born with such a Gift.”

I preferred not to ask how Layen knew all of this.

“But let’s return to my question,” I reminded her. “What does healing have to do with injuring someone?”

“Every spark has its reverse side.”

“Those words mean nothing to me.”

She narrowed her dark blue eyes thoughtfully.

“The idea is the same in regular healing. Say you take a tisane of bloodroot for a cough. If you drink too much, instead of curing of your illness, you get the complete opposite result instead. Your lungs will collapse and you’ll drown in your own blood. It’s the same here. Who ever said that a doctor can’t kill?”

“Well, if he’s a quack,” I said, chuckling.

“Not necessarily from ineptitude, dear. You must admit that an experienced doctor knows the human body so well that should the desire take him, he could easily send anyone he liked to the Blessed Gardens. It’s exactly like that with the magic of the Healers. To stop the heart? To burst the blood vessels? To send pestilence? If he can repair a broken spine, then why wouldn’t he be able to break it? It’s a unique battle magic that has nothing in common with the customary canons of the academies of the Walkers and Sdis. Not Life and not Death. Beyond that. Completely different. If a person turned a Gift like that to evil, he could cause such calamity that he’d be remembered for centuries. You don’t need to go very far for an example. Leprosy, one of the Damned, is a Healer.”

“Hey! According to legend, half the south died because of a disease she sent.”

“That’s exactly right. I think you can imagine now what an experienced Healer is capable of. No,” she said, guessing what I wanted to ask. “Shen can’t do that. Yet. I told you that his Gift is not yet developed. Like I said, it was nothing more than an accident. The boy was lucky that he could overpower the khilss. It was even more lucky that when Shen passed his Gift through it, his spark was not burned out. When Life encounters Death they usually kill each other. But Shen’s magic is different. When it tangled with the necromancer’s magic, it behaved in an inconceivable way. I’ve never heard of anything like it. A purifying, scalding light. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. Even the Damned didn’t suspect anything. She erected a shield so strong that most Walkers wouldn’t be able to break through it. But the shield did not save her because of what resulted from the intermingling of the spark of the Healer and the magic of Death. Frankly, I’m not sure if there’s even a way to combat such a spell.”

“Is it really possible that neither you nor that girl nor the necromancer sensed who our Healer is?”

“It is. We didn’t sense it. Not every bearer of the Gift is able to sense another’s spark. And if it’s skillfully hidden… The White didn’t have the experience to catch me out. But about the Gift of a Healer. The temperature of his spark differs radically from the majority of sparks you come in contact with. You can only sense a Healer when he is exhibiting his abilities. Not before then. So that’s why neither I nor the Damned nor the Sdisian suspected anything about the talents of Mols’s friend until the very last moment.”

“Speaking of…” I hesitated, but then I said it anyway. “Of the Damned. If you’re right and it was… Which one was it?”

“Hmmm,” she pondered, pulling her knees up under her chin and circling her arms around them.

I waited patiently.

“Initially there were more than twenty rebels in the Council of the Towers, but only eight of them survived the Dark Revolt and those are the ones known as the Damned. Delirium and Cholera died during the War of the Necromancers. Six were left. Two of them are men. That leaves four women. Only two of them fully match the characteristics we saw. So it was either Rubeola or Typhoid we came up against.”

I shivered. But I still couldn’t believe that we had seen one of those who had fomented the Dark Revolt and triggered the War of the Necromancers.

“What would a Damned want with a place like Dog Green?”

“The answer is obvious, my dear. Me. Or rather, my Gift. Of course, one might think that she came there out of pure curiosity or with the hope of enticing me to her side, but I don’t really believe that. A few of the strongest mages have the ability to fuse others’ sparks to their own Gift and become stronger.”

I saw that this subject was disagreeable to her and refrained from pursuing it. I turned the conversation to something else. “So why did Mols send a Healer to us?”

“Are you positive that he knows about Shen’s Gift?”

“No,” I replied after a brief reflection. “But if that’s so, then I really don’t know what would cause him to send a common healer with Giiyans.”

“What or who?” Layen’s expression turned cunning.

“Are you insinuating that it was Joch?”

“I don’t know. When do you think we’ll get to the road?”

I estimated the distance we’d traveled.

“The day after tomorrow, if we keep the same pace and nothing happens.”

“You know that as soon as we get to the road they will become too dangerous for us. I can’t vouch for Midge.”

“And I can’t vouch for any of them. I happened to overhear a conversation between our firewood collectors last night.”

I briefly recounted Midge and Bamut’s conversation.

“Maybe we should try to get rid of them today?” I suggested.

“It will be tricky,” Layen said reluctantly. “I’m not sure that I can fight against even one of them. Plus, who knows what Shen will throw at us if we pin him to the wall.”

“But I’m not asking you to brawl. Your Gift is far more useful than your knife.”

She looked at me for a second in surprise and then sighed heavily. “I thought you understood.”

She was silent for the longest time after that. Then she whispered quietly, “I cannot use my Gift.”

I thought I had misheard her.

“You… What?”

“I can’t use my Gift!” she screamed, losing control of herself, and then she buried her face in her hands.

For a short time I watched, stunned, as she sobbed soundlessly, and then I gathered her into my arms.

“Shh, hush. It’s all right,” I tried to console her. It helped a bit. The sobbing turned into quiet hiccups.

“I can’t… I lost… I can’t… That’s why I didn’t reply to your mental calls. I simply didn’t hear them. I was planning on telling you today. I started but then you asked about the Damned and I couldn’t go on.

“I told you already about the attenuation of the spark. The sorcerer’s khilss drained me. Then the Damned’s spell bound what remained of my magic. My spark has faded so much that I can’t invoke my Gift.”

“But you created that little ball of light yesterday for Shen.”

“It needed doing, even if it required the last of the power I’d regained. Midge had to see it.”

“So your Gift hasn’t left you forever?”

“Of course not. My spark hasn’t gone out. But quite some time will be needed to restore it.”

“How long?”

“I’ve never had anything like this happen to me, so I can only guess. Two weeks. Perhaps a month.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from swearing. I hadn’t thought everything was this bad. We didn’t have two weeks to rest; we didn’t even have two days. Without my sun’s magic backing me, I would be hard-pressed to deal with our three intrusive companions.

With an outraged shriek, a dappled bird flew out of the thick brush about fifteen yards away from us. Right away I was on my feet, ready to shoot. Layen jumped up as well.

“Something spooked it,” she said.

There were no suspicious movements or sounds. If someone was hiding there, he was being extremely quiet. We stood there for several minutes, tensely listening to the sounds of the forest.

“It’s useless,” said Layen. “If there was someone there, he’s long since made himself scarce.”

“Or he’s still hiding,” I said, disagreeing with her. “He could have heard us.”

“I don’t think so. It’s far enough away.”

“Some people have excellent hearing,” I objected again and cast up my bow.

Twang!

The arrow flew to the place from which the bird had just flown. I waited another minute and then I took my axe in my right hand and a long dagger in my left, and went to scout it out, not all that hopeful that I’d managed to wound someone.

Just as I assumed, the arrow had hit the ground. I put it back in my quiver and examined the ground. The grass all around was undisturbed, but one of the branches of a raspberry bush was broken. A few ripe berries had fallen to the ground.

This could mean much.

Or it could mean nothing.

“Oh, Al’sgara!” sighed Bamut dreamily as he pillowed his arms under his head and stretched out on the leaves. “Damn…. Who would have known I’d miss it this much!”

“Long walks are good for your health.” Layen pensively poked at a coal of the dying fire with a branch. An entire flock of sparks rushed up into the night sky.

“Anything but that for me! I think I have the spirit of the Green City in my blood.”

“Thinking is bad for you, my friend,” said my sun softly. “As you well know, too many thoughts can lead to a whole heap of troubles. Pass me some water, please.”

Bamut sat up and stretched so that his joints popped. He did anything that was not part of his work at a leisurely pace. I could see how his laziness was enraging my wife.

“Take mine.” Midge threw her his flask. “A century will pass by before he gets moving.”

“Don’t bad-mouth me.” Bamut huffed as he stretched out again. “There’s no rush.”

I stepped out of the gloom where I’d been standing this whole time.

“Is everything all right?” Midge asked after clearing his throat. My appearance had caught him unawares.

“So it seems,” I answered him vaguely. “It’s quiet for the second day. It seems like they decided to leave us alone after all.”

“Glory be to Melot,” said Shen as he tossed a log onto the fading fire. “Spending every watch just waiting for something—”

“The longer you wait, the safer you’ll be.” Layen took a sip from Midge’s flask and frowned. “Ugh! Where did you get this water?”

“From a stream.” The runt was clearly not expecting such a question.

“You found a bad stream. It’s bitter.”

She spat and dumped out the flask.

“Hey! Hey!” Midge cried out. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t whine,” I advised him. “Is there nowhere to get water? Every day there’s two or three springs on our path. You won’t die.”

Still spitting, Layen tossed the empty flask to its owner.

“I’d have given permission, if only she’d asked,” he said grumpily as he twisted the lid back on. “We’ll get there tomorrow, right, Ness?”

“Who said?” I asked dryly.

“Well, that’s the way it looks. We’ve been walking in a straight line recently. We’re headed west. In the evenings the sun beats down right into my face, especially when we’re tromping through a field. If you count the days, we should already be there.”

You smart little toad. We should get rid of you. Today. This night. When everyone would be asleep. We no longer required your company.

“Should have doesn’t count in the forest.”

“I think that a child could find the road now.” I really didn’t like Midge’s smile.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said.

“I’m simply happy. I’ll be home soon.” He was still smiling boldly.

Layen and I exchanged furtive glances.

So then. What follows from everything we just heard? Even a child could find the road? Is that to say that he no longer requires a guide? Are they sure that they can get out of the woods themselves? Apparently. The idiots don’t know that there is a swamp in front of us, and we need to turn to the north. They believe they can get out of this scrape themselves. So of course our designation has changed—from dangerous companions to dangerous trophies for which quite a lot of money has been promised. Have they decided to do away with us? Yes, only we’ll do it sooner, boys.

We had to terminate Shen first. I couldn’t care less whether he was a Healer or not. Even if people like our Healer were born once in a hundred or even a thousand years, he was the most dangerous of the three.

“When I return to Al’sgara, I’m going to live it up.” Bamut sat up again. “Damn it…. I’ll buy myself a little house. On the outskirts. By the seashore. Or even better, a nice inn closer to the pier. And what are you going to do with your share, Midge?”

“Me?” The runt was lovingly picking the petals off a small, unattractive flower. “It’s too early to think about that. When I get it, then I’ll decide. Sorens always find a way to be spent.”

“You need to think about it in advance.”

“How are you planning on getting rich, boys?” I tried to enter the conversation casually, but inside I was cringing. “You expecting an inheritance?”

“Something like that.” Midge finished tearing off the petals and tossed what remained of the flower at me. “Here. Feast your eyes on that.”

Bamut suddenly guffawed.

“What is this?” I ignored the laughter.

“Greater Valerian. The key to ten thousand sorens. You still don’t understand? The root of that little flower could make even a horse fall asleep.”

“I never would have thought that you were so at home with forest herbs,” I said, drawing out the words.

“Unlike some upstarts, real Giiyans undergo lengthy schooling.” Midge wasn’t smiling anymore. “Don’t! It’ll be worse for you.”

I couldn’t reach for my bow. Bamut’s crossbow was unambiguously leveled at my chest.

“What should I make of this?” I asked coldly as I slanted my eyes to the right. To my surprise, Layen was sleeping.

“The water in the flask was bitter!” The realization stunned me.

They had outplayed us.

“Excellent!” Midge approved of my guess. “So it was. I don’t rely on it very much, but luck loves me. When the witch awakes—”

“She’ll boil your brains.”

“So we believed as well. I heard that she can’t do anything. Your woman is no more dangerous than a mosquito.”

That means it was him hiding in the bushes. They spied on us, the Abyss take me!

“If she hadn’t swallowed that junk we would have just whacked her over the head.” Bamut edged into the conversation.

“Mols won’t be happy.” I was regretting that Whip wasn’t here like never before.

“With that much money I can spit on both Mols and the guild, Gray.”

“Then I don’t understand why you’re chatting with me.”

“We don’t intend to kill you. What would we do with your heads in the forest? They’ll rot ten times over before we get them to the city. Threefingers might not believe us then. So we’ll bring Joch live goods. And whole. We won’t even beat you if you yield.”

“I’m simply thrilled,” I said and dropped sharply to my right side, simultaneously throwing my hatchet with my right hand.

The crossbow gave a loud crack and the released bolt passed over my head. Bamut hadn’t expected something like that from me, and he had fumbled and missed the shot. However, hitting your target when you have a Blazgian utak lodged in your forehead is not very easy.

One down!

Midge roared, leaped up into the air, and crashed into me with all his weight before I had a chance to get to my feet. The blow threw me over onto my back. At the last moment I intercepted his hand, which was holding a knife ready to pierce my hide. The blade froze an inch from my face. Midge was pressing down with all his strength in one direction, and I was pressing up in the other. With my free hand I scratched at his face, trying to get to his eyes.

“Do you need any help?” Shen’s voice rang out lazily.

“Of course! Yes! Idiot!” snarled Midge.

The knife came half an inch closer to my face. Suddenly my opponent shuddered and went limp. Shen was standing over him with a bloodstained skeem. Noticing my bemused expression, he smiled nonchalantly.

“I always disliked him.”

I pushed the corpse off me and stood up. “So what next?”

“Nothing. We may as well get along. I hope to hell that we’ll get to Al’sgara together.”

“And then?”

He looked at me for a very long time; then he put away his skeem and said quietly, “Let’s try to wake Layen.”

The forest thinned out. The impassable thickets and mighty trees disappeared; little paths emerged; and a multitude of clear springs tumbled out of the earth and flowed into a small lake, which was hidden from curious eyes behind a wall of thick spruce trees. The ground became boggy in places, the black flies and mosquitoes increased. They didn’t leave us be until the weather soured and it began to rain. It became damp, muggy, and nasty. All signs pointed to the fact that the Great Blazgian Swamp lay not far from here. We struck north, in the hopes of sooner or later emerging onto the road that traversed the boundaries of the swamp and the forest.

Layen was constantly spitting out bitter saliva and recalling Midge and Bamut with “kind” words. If she had her way, she would have happily killed the scoundrels a second time. We didn’t bother to bury them. I doubted this would offend Mols. The guild never defends those who go against its will. So the bodies remained there where they lay. Forest creatures need to eat too.

The Healer walked ahead and when he began to go astray I corrected his course. For obvious reasons we were not going to risk having Shen at our backs. Even after yesterday’s assistance, it wouldn’t do to trust him. But I did understand that all my precautions were just a drop in the ocean. Physically, I could wrap the kid around my finger, but I was powerless against his magic. And not just me, but Layen as well. Shen had definitely heard yesterday’s conversation with Midge and so he knew that my sun had temporarily lost her Gift.

The unprotected back of the Healer was always in front of my eyes, but the temptation to stab it with something sharp didn’t arise. The lad had one goal, and he voiced it more than once—to get to Al’sgara. From this I deduced that prior to the moment when the walls of the Green City appeared, his only interest in us would be as traveling companions. And killing everyone to your left and right is something only lunatics and scoundrels do. I dared to hope that after all my years of work I hadn’t become as vile a brute as Midge or Bamut.

By noon we were soaked to the skin from the endless rain. I feared for my bowstrings, although they were hidden away in a metal box at the very bottom of the pack in which we had our money. The fletching of my arrows should also be kept dry, but there was nothing I could do about that. It’s a good thing that we were walking under the trees, as some of the drops settled on the branches and leaves instead of on us.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult to light a fire this evening,” said Shen. The hood of his jacket was pulled close over his face so that I could only see his stubbly chin.

“We should be out on the road by this evening.”

“That’s good news.”

“Shen, I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while now, who taught you?” asked Layen as she pulled up even with the Healer.

“What are you on about?” His voice was full of contrived incomprehension.

“Who quickened your spark and helped you master the Gift?”

“And who taught you?” he asked defiantly.

“No one,” she answered immediately. “I didn’t need a teacher.”

“As if I’d believe that,” he grumbled from under his hood. “In Dog Green you showed yourself in all your glory. That kind of skill would be challenging without a proper mentor. I may not have those abilities yet but I, like you, am familiar with the fundamentals. None of the Walkers would be able to master a khilss.”

“You yourself sent a spell through the staff.”

“Don’t confuse an ordinary spark with a Healer’s. Besides, you saw how well that turned out. I hadn’t reckoned on that outcome.”

“I don’t doubt that for a minute.”

“And yet.” Shen would not let it go. “Who was your mentor that you would so easily flirt with Death? It definitely wasn’t one of those who live in the Rainbow Valley. They can’t teach such things.”

“Are you really so sure of this, little boy?”

Against all odds, he didn’t take offense at “little boy.” He only laughed mirthlessly.

“I’m sure. Otherwise you’d be with the Walkers. They’d never neglect such talent, and they’d be even less likely to leave it unsupervised. Tell me, why didn’t you kill that necromancer right away, as soon as he came to see us? I don’t doubt that you could have handled him readily.”

“Don’t overestimate my powers.”

“I’d rather that than underestimate them.” The Healer was still agitated. “I just can’t help but wonder how the Seekers missed you. And how many years you were under the noses of the Imperial mages and escaped their notice.”

“And we’re once again back where we started, Shen. If you’re not hiding, that means the Walkers know about you, and you and them together—that’s unacceptable to us right now. Or are you just as clever as I am, and you’ve been lurking all this time?”

“Nothing’s easier than hiding the spark of a Healer from others. They don’t sense it until I use my Gift.”

“Oh, yes! I can attest to that myself. So that means you’re hiding, right, Shen? You’re self-taught?”

“Something along those lines.”

“Even if it’s not so, we’ll really never find out, isn’t that true?”

“If you won’t talk about yourself, neither will I. In my opinion, it’s all pretty straightforward. Let’s abandon this subject. I for one am not planning on discussing anything.”

“As you wish. I can say one thing—your potential is hardly developed. You flare up and fizzle out right away. Do you know how to do much of anything at all?”

“Look after yourself, Layen. Yourself. I’ll deal with my problems on my own.”

After this conversation, silence reigned for a long time in our little group.

“Do you think this is wise?” said Luk, his voice full of doubt.

Ga-Nor, who looked like a soaked ginger dog because of the rain, tossed his head without turning toward his companion. The guard didn’t know how to take this gesture and so he set about to refresh his companion’s memory.

“They killed two men last night.”

“Perhaps they wouldn’t share. All sorts of things can happen.”

“All sorts?” said Luk, horrified. “Those people just cut down their own comrades, screw a toad! And you expect them to be civil to us?”

“Damned rain. The tracks disappear so quickly.” The Son of the Snow Leopard tugged at his mustache angrily, and then responded to his companion’s indignation, “I’m not planning on facing them. Nor offering my hand in friendship. We’re traveling the same path, that’s all. We’re following in their tracks and not making a sound. That’s all we need to do. I think that even you can manage that.”

“They have an archer. Have you forgotten?”

“Like I’d forget.” Ga-Nor tapped the bandage on his left shoulder. “Make no mistake, the man’s good.”

“It’s too bad they didn’t cut him down, too. I’d feel much calmer if I knew I wasn’t going to get shot at. We’re not going to walk too quickly, right?”

“We’re keeping our normal pace.”

“We’re going to catch up to them!”

“The tracks tell me that everything is all right.”

“Didn’t you just say that the rain was eating away at them?”

“Don’t fret.”

“Don’t fret. Don’t run. Don’t hop. Don’t skip. Don’t sleep. Walk faster. Walk slower. Quite frankly, sometimes I regret that that man didn’t drill a hole in you.”

The tracker chortled gleefully in response to these words, but when he cast his eyes down to the ground he instantly became serious.

“Be silent!” hissed the northerner. He examined the meadow pensively.

“What?” asked Luk with bated breath as he began to look all around.

An arrow with white fletching cut through the veil of rain and landed in the ground by Ga-Nor’s left foot. The archer was at the other end of the meadow, hood thrown back, yellow hair stuck to his forehead, gray eyes, and the tip of an arrow resting upon the bowstring of a powerful curved bow, steadily aimed at the Son of the Snow Leopard.

“We’re really in it now, screw a toad!” groaned Luk. “I told you we were walking too quickly.”

Ga-Nor frowned. If the archer had wanted to, he could have finished them off a while ago. Without any warning. But he was hanging back. That meant he didn’t really want to take their lives. There was hope that they could come to an arrangement.

“And here come the rest,” muttered the soldier when a young man, no older than twenty, and a woman with a pack over her shoulder came out from behind the trees. The woman was the same one from the village who had reduced the Burnt Souls to nothing more than wet spots on the ground. Luk wasn’t sure if she was a Walker or an Ember.

“Who are you?” The gray eyes of the archer were like ice.

“Ga-Nor from the clan of the Snow Leopard. Tracker for the reconnaissance squad of the Gates of Six Towers.”

“Luk, guard of the first squadron of the Tower of Ice. Of the Gates of Six Towers.”

The boy standing next to the woman whistled.

“What brings you so far from the Boxwood Mountains? Have you lost your way?”

“Need compelled us.”

“I am sure the need was great.”

Luk liked the youngster less and less.

“Yes. It’s called the Nabatorian army and Sdisian sorcerers.”

“How long ago did you leave?”

“We left when they stormed the fortress. We are making our way home through the forest.”

“And why are you following us?”

“We share the same path. It’s not our fault that you are headed to the same place we are.”

“And just where do you think we’re going?” asked the youth, squinting suspiciously.

“To Al’sgara, of course.”

“Is that right?”

“Take it easy, Shen.” The woman reined in the youth. “We’re not sure you’re here by chance.”

“If you don’t want to travel together, then don’t,” the tracker replied in a surly manner. “We’re not looking for your company. You go on ahead. We’ve nothing to quarrel over. To each his own.”

“You’ve been tromping along behind us since the village, haven’t you?”

Luk really wanted to lie, but, judging by the expression on the archer’s face, he had no love for fairy tales.

“Yes. We left a bit earlier, but then we let you go on ahead.”

“So it was you who was walking around our campfire at night?” The gray-eyed one had noticed Ga-Nor’s bloody bandage.

“Precisely. You’re a good shot.”

“And you’re a good runner.” He gave back as good as he got, but his face was no longer quite as dark. “You’re a lucky man.”

“Ug preserves the skillful,” said the tracker serenely. “May I know your name?”

“Gray,” replied the man after a short pause, and then he lowered his bow. “Drop your weapons and you can walk in front. So I can keep an eye on you. And no tricks.”