Dragon! Book Two: "Revenge"

CHAPTER TEN

Reluctantly, Gareth set the horses free. They were still close enough to Reteam that they might find their way home, but if not, somebody would find them and care for them. Horses are a luxury they couldn’t afford while traveling in the depths of the forests. Besides, horses leave easily followed hoof prints, and they have no understanding of stealth. Horses usually only travel on roads or wide paths. He planned to use lesser ways.

But the biggest reason was that people who own horses for travel are wealthy and, therefore, attract attention from all. People on horses are remembered. Even eyes that watch from hidden places remember horses and their riders. From this point on they would travel the back ways.

After staying awake all night, Tad was almost in a stupor, slow to move and quiet. His eyes were dull, but he could walk. They rested longer, ate the remainder of the rabbit, and did little speaking but a lot of thinking.

Ann spent the time lost in her head, reviewing the area they were in and where they wanted to go. She told him that her mind became a large map, every detail recalled and properly placed. Roads, rivers, streams, towns, and landmarks were properly placed until a possible route emerged.

Gareth did much the same. He laid down on his back and closed his eyes, but did not sleep. He let his mind listen to the chatter of thought as he tried to eliminate all but those thoughts from the people nearest to them. There was at least a hundred. He reached out to each, slowly and carefully. A single gentle touch followed by another more demanding until the person was eliminated as the one he sought.

More than fifty had been carefully investigated and eliminated before he located the right one. Gareth pulled back and considered his next move. Gareth’s next mental touch was warm, just the brush of a butterfly wing on a babe’s cheek while gathering impressions. He didn’t dare go deeper and examine any thoughts or feelings.

The fleeting impressions told him it was the mind of a young boy. An untrained mind, but one similar to his abilities. In that mind, thoughts scattered like a flock of birds after a cat pounces. But he found a few constants, too. The boy behind the thoughts was often hungry. Not the general hunger of all growing boys, but the hunger that comes with often missed meals over days and days.

The boy was also angry, lonely, and scared. Another, a stronger mind, controlled the boy’s actions. He didn’t like it but was forced to do things he didn’t want to do. The boy was scared of the other mind and what it did to those who didn’t obey it.

Gareth allowed a tendril of softness to penetrate the mind while he managed to a glimpse through his eyes. The boy was perched on the side of a hill overlooking a section of the road outside a village. His job was to remain there and touch the minds of all who traveled the road until he located Gareth.

Opening his eyes, he said to Ann, “I think our task is about to get harder. How much of that medicine for calming Tad do you have?”

“Enough for a few days.”

“So, what if there were two of him?”

“A day, maybe a little more. But it is a common herb, and I’m certain I can locate more.”

“Begin looking. The mind we felt earlier is very close. I think that I know exactly where.”

“What are you planning to do, Gareth?”

“We need information about who killed my father. I have no doubt that it was the insane voice that controls the one watching the road ahead. We don’t have one person with the same powers as I have, we have at least two, and I suspect three.”

Ann furrowed her brows and leaned closer. “You’re planning to capture him, not kill him.”

“The second voice, yes. His mind is strong but sane. He’s just scared. A frightened little boy being bullied by one stronger.”

“Consider killing him. That resolves one-fourth of your problem.”

“I cannot do that.”

She stood and paced the clearing from one end to the other and back. She returned to face him. “No, I suppose you can’t. But I can. This is my offer. We will attempt to capture this ‘innocent’ boy. If I believe at any time that you or Tad is in danger, I will take his life then and there. I will not ask permission or discuss it with you.”

There appeared to be no give in her decision. Gareth nodded his agreement to her terms. “He is watching from the other side of this hill,” he motioned with his hand. “He has been there for days and is bored, hungry, and tired.”

“Which of those traits are you going to exploit?”

“Tired, I think. Bored and tired sort of go together. I think he may wish to take a nap.”

Ann said, “He may want to drink my potion before he fully wakes. I can help with that.”

“Gather what we take with us, and keep Tad’s mind still. We’ll all go up this side of the hill, and when I get a look at the road, I think I can estimate where we will need to go.”

“Are you going to calm his mind as we move?”

Gareth said, “Yes, calm him and slowly block his ability to hear others with his mind. Only a little at a time until he is deaf to the mental world.”

“You can do that?”

A glance at Tad. “Very similar to how I squelch his thoughts from escaping. I have to do it carefully, or he will detect me and come alert, but after a certain point, I believe I will control more of his mind than he does.”

Ann said, “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Me neither. But it appears that is what’s happening with this other mind, the evil one. It is controlling the mind of this boy, preventing him from sleeping or eating while he sits on watch.”

They moved up the slope without a lot of talking. Gareth kept a slight mental touch on the boy, reinforcing the idea of sleep. At the same time, he blanketed his thoughts from reaching out, hoping he could also prevent thoughts from others from entering, but he’d never tried that.

At the crest of the hill they paused. The road wound below, following the course of a wide stream. A small village lay beyond. The place provided an excellent view of the road. Gareth compared what he saw it to what he had seen in the boy’s eyes. Then he pointed, certain of the location where the boy watched from.

A mental touch assured him the boy was sitting on pine needles, but his eyes were closed. Gareth lightly suggested he lay down, but the boy remained seated, trying to do his duty. Twice more Gareth made the suggestion as they moved closer, each time a little more insistent.

The boy finally slumped and curled into a sleeping position, knees pulled to his chin as he lay on his side. They were close, slightly above the boy on the slope, perhaps a hundred steps away. Gareth motioned for Ann to stop.

He reached out with a stronger tendril seeking a better grip and closed the boy’s ears as well as his mental ‘hearing’. Once satisfied that the boy was all but unconscious, and his mind closed to intrusion he said, “Let’s go.”

They saw the boy long before they reached him. Ann went first, leaving Tad with Gareth behind as she quickly poured her potion into his mouth while Gareth kept him still and uncaring. Shortly after, Gareth felt the medication taking effect as the little slice of the mind that he monitored relaxed and dulled.

Gareth led Tad to the boy’s side. He was older than Tad by a few years, but not many. His clothing was tattered and filthy. His thin, filthy body told of missed meals and his greasy hair hung as if it had not been washed in a full lunar. In all, what Gareth observed was a wild boy, a child who was raised far from civilization without the benefit of an adult. Or one held from normal routines for days on end.

A single glance at Ann confirmed his suspicions. Twin tracks of tears leaked from her eyes. She said, “This is the monster we feared?”

“No. This boy is just a tool for the monster to use,” Gareth said.

“What in the six god’s names are we going to do with him?”

“Take him with us,” Gareth told her, leaving no room for doubt.

She scooped him into her arms, then cast a look at Gareth. “Stinks.”

Several of the many sores on his skin oozed yellow. A cut on his foot looked red and infected. Gareth lifted one hand and pulled the barb of a sticker from the palm. He held the fingers, one of which stuck out at an angle. “Broken.”

Ann said, jutting her chin away from the road, “Back to the top of the hill and down the other side, but bear to the right as we go down. We’ll come to a small river. I don’t think there are any farms or people living nearby. We’ll spend the night there.”

“This boy needs more than one night of healing,” Gareth said. “But we can spare the last of today as long as we’re moving again at first light. We need to get past any roadblocks the army has, and we need to do it before they release the Brotherhood to help guard the roads.”

She nodded and said, “I can carry him for a while. Then you’ll have to do it, and I’ll take Tad.”

While moving, Gareth opened his mind, filtering any voices he heard that were not close. He eliminated the few he found, most of which were either on or near the road. Then, as he was about to take the small boy from Ann, another voice sounded in the depths of his mind. It was intense. Angry. It was seeking out the boy Ann had drugged, demanding the boy respond and threatening consequences if he did not. When it couldn’t locate him, the voice grew more impatient and threatening, then instantly it turned to pure hatred. The air almost scorched at the violence and venom that filled it.

Ann’s expression turned fearful. She said, “It’s him, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I have never ‘heard’ anything like that in my mind before and always wondered what it is like for those of you who use mind talk. It that’s a sample, I never want to experience it again.”