CHAPTER EIGHT
After they’d spent five minutes scraping off mud and drying out, Ran insisted they keep moving. The trees that loomed in on the game trail they walked along helped stave off most of the blazing sun overhead, but even without the swamp water nearby, the humidity still plagued them, making their clothes stick to their skin. Ran’s breath felt heavy and congealed every time he breathed. He longed for the crisp, cool air of the mountains of his homeland. Behind him, he could hear Jysal having similar problems. He glanced back a few times, and she managed a weak smile each time he did so, but Ran knew she was struggling to keep up.
For his part, Ran wasn’t too bothered by the strain, although he marveled at how much more taxing the walk was on him when the sun shone rather than under the blanket of gray clouds yesterday. He would have gladly swapped the weather for that of the previous day, but he knew that was impossible. He saw a thick pine tree and slowed to a stop.
Jysal seemed grateful for the break. “I would take all of my clothes off and walk naked if I thought it would help.”
Ran smiled. “As uplifting as that would no doubt be, the mosquitoes would hound you mercilessly.”
Jysal sighed. “I thought we’d leave most of them behind at the swamp, but I guess I was mistaken about that.”
“They can be just as bad under the trees as in the swamp,” said Ran. “There’s really no escaping the buggers except to keep going and hopefully see the landscape change.”
“They were not a nuisance at the beach, though.”
“The salt air keeps them away,” said Ran. “Trust me, I wish we were walking along the shore right now.”
Jysal said nothing for a moment but glanced around. “How much farther did you get yesterday with Kancho?”
Ran pointed a few hundred yards ahead. “That’s where Vargul’s trail went cold. It was as if he was simply lifted off his feet and carried away. Which, bearing in mind what we discussed earlier, now seems all the more likely.”
“What do you think would have the strength to carry away a fully grown man like that?”
Ran’s hand went to his sword without his conscious volition. “I don’t know. But something tells me we’ll find out before too long.”
Jysal smirked. “I don’t know how much of a threat I’ll be with my dagger.”
“Better than nothing,” said Ran. “Just what are you on your way to this temple for, anyway? And why do you need a bodyguard for the journey?”
Jysal shrugged. “I am promised to the temple. Once there, I’ll start my education.”
“In what?”
Jysal continued, ignoring Ran’s question. “Neviah’s job was to make sure I got there intact. The roads are dangerous for a single woman traveling alone.”
“The roads are dangerous for anyone,” said Ran. “But I can see why having Neviah along would make you feel safer.”
“She’s a blessing,” said Jysal. “And I miss her dearly.”
“But you won’t tell me what you’re going to learn at the temple,” said Ran.
Jysal smiled at him. “Didn’t you just tell me how dangerous it is to reveal too many secrets about yourself?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, maybe you’ll get some answers. Eventually.” Jysal looked up at the sky through the trees. “I’d kill for a breeze right now.”
Ran nodded. “It’s still pretty hot even in the shade. But we should keep moving.”
Jysal pushed off of the tree trunk and held her hand out toward the trail. “Lead on and I shall follow. I’m tired but I will keep going until you say it’s time to stop.”
“We won’t be stopping until sunset if we can hold out. I want to put as much distance between us and the beach as possible.”
“Why?”
“Well, for one thing, I want to find our friends. And for another, if we are indeed being hunted, then I want to make it difficult for those who would capture us to find us. If we’re not at the beach, that makes their job that much tougher.”
“Unless Kan-Gul has the ability to see where we are. Then he could simply direct his minions to come here instead of the beach.”
Ran nodded. “True, but I still hope that we can make it tougher on them than it has been.” He turned and started down the game trail once again, picking his way over the twisted and gnarled roots that looped up out of the ground to turn an unwary ankle. But Ran’s steps were sure-footed, garnered from his years of training. He could steal across a roll of wet rice paper without causing any breaks or crinkles in the surface. He could even glide across nightingale floors designed to creak when weight was applied to them.
Jysal hadn’t had such training however, and it wasn’t long before her foot caught in one of the roots and she went down hard. Ran was by her side instantly, helping her back to her feet. “Are you all right?”
Jysal put some weight on her foot and after a second nodded. “I think so. I didn’t see that root.”
“They’re all over the place. Just try to mind them and we’ll be fine.”
Jysal leaned into him. “Thank you.”
He looked down into her eyes and found himself almost falling into the darkness contained within. Jysal’s smile was bright, and her breath warm on his neck. But then Ran saw the image of Cassandra’s face in his mind and eased back away from Jysal. “We should keep moving.”
If she was upset by Ran’s move, only her eyes widened in surprise, as if Ran had done something so completely unexpected, she didn’t know how to process it. “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a man turn down an invitation like that,” she said quietly.
“I mean no offense,” said Ran. “But we really need to keep moving.”
Jysal tested her foot again and then nodded. “It feels all right. Let’s go.”
Ran turned back to the trail, grateful she couldn’t see the blood rushing into his face. He took a few deep breaths to get himself back under control. It was tempting—far too tempting—to grab her up in his arms and lay with her right then and there under the trees in this strange place. But who knew what might be lurking nearby? If Kan-Gul was everything Malkyr had tried to make him out to be, it was conceivable he knew where they were, as Jysal had suggested. It was also possible he could send his minions to attack them while they were in the throes of passion.
No, he decided. It was far better to keep to the task at hand. If they got through this land and away from Kan-Gul, then perhaps he would take Jysal up on her invitation. She was far too beautiful to ignore, and Ran felt his pulse quicken at the thought of what they could do to each other.
He checked the ground and saw that the sign that Vargul had left behind as he’d walked this trail was deteriorating even more as the elements sought to erase it. And there, just a few yards ahead, Ran could see where the sign ended abruptly. He stopped for a moment. He was taken here, he thought. His hand was on his sword, when he heard Jysal breathe sharply.
“Ran!”
In an instant, he had his sword out, eyes already up and scanning the landscape. “Where?”
“Ahead of us. In the brush.”
Ran heard Jysal pull her dagger out and continued to search the brush ahead of them. The trees formed pockets of shadows that kept things hidden quite well. But as Ran narrowed his eyes and scanned left to right, he caught a glimpse of movement and then zeroed in on the location.
There.
With both of his hands on his sword, he moved farther ahead of Jysal. “Stay where you are,” he said to her quietly.
The eyes watching him were yellow and stood out from the surrounding brush. Ran wondered how Jysal had spotted the creature, but then it moved and Ran no longer cared. He was simply grateful that she had.
The beast lumbered around the side of the tree trunk and then stretched lazily, as if pondering to kill first. Ran watched its muscles shudder and ripple beneath the taut mottled fur. It looked like an overgrown dog—possibly a wolf—but there was something far more sinister about it. Its eyes roved over Ran, and then its tongue snaked out and licked its muzzle. It sniffed the air and then moved a few steps closer to Ran.
Ran never took his eyes off the beast. He felt certain that doing so would prompt it to attack. And clearly, the beast used its apparent nonchalance to lull prey into thinking it hadn’t seen them when it certainly had. Was this the reason there was so little life in the forest? Had it killed everything? For that matter, had it killed Vargul?
No, Ran decided. If it had, there would have been signs of a struggle. Vargul would not have gone down without battling for his life. There’d be blood spatters on the trees and other indicators that they’d fought a savage duel here. But Vargul’s tracks simply vanished.
This creature hadn’t killed him.
Ran eyed the beast. It must have been close to eight feet long and perhaps five feet high at the shoulder. Ran wished he didn’t have to kill the creature. But he would if it left him no choice.
“What does it want?” Jysal’s voice was a quiet whisper in the woods.
Ran kept his eyes on the beast. “I don’t know. It’s not behaving like it wants to attack. But I’m not about to let it know I think that.”
“Can you kill it?”
Ran almost smirked. “Can I? I hope so. Must I? I hope I don’t I have to.”
The beast eyed Ran and then let out a single low-pitched growl. Ran’s eyes narrowed even more. The beast compacted its haunches and then edged around them, always pointed right at Ran. He saw its eyes flick over to Jysal only once before coming immediately back to rest on Ran. It knows I’m the threat, he thought. The fact he had a nearly three-foot-long razor-sharp blade in his hands had probably clued it in.
Another growl bubbled up from the beast’s throat. Ran felt his heartbeat increase but willed it to slow back down. He couldn’t stave off the effects of his excitement completely, but he’d been taught to use his breathing to calm himself as much as possible prior to combat. That training helped him now. The danger of adrenaline was that it narrowed his awareness and tunneled his vision. By maintaining proper breathing, Ran could keep his wits about him and be ready for anything that tried to surprise him.
When the beast launched itself, there was no warning. If Ran hadn’t kept his breathing going, he would have been caught off guard and hesitated a fraction of a second. In that time, the beast would have clamped its jaws around his neck and finished him with one awful attack aimed at tearing out Ran’s throat.
Instead, as Ran exhaled smoothly, he stepped to the side and brought the single-edged curved blade up in a tight arc that slashed through the beast’s underside, slicing neatly through its belly and into its vital organs. Ran kept moving as he cut and the beast fell heavily to the ground, staining the earth dark with its blood and innards. It uttered one whimper and then lay still.
Ran flicked the blood from his blade using the quick motion that he’d practiced so often it was ingrained and then returned his sword to its scabbard.
Jysal rushed over. “Are you hurt?”
Ran shook his head. “No.”
Jysal looked at the beast and then back at Ran. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone make a cut like that. You were so precise and so effortless at the same time. Where did you learn to handle a sword like that?”
“Just a lot of practice,” said Ran.
But Jysal wasn’t convinced. “I’ve seen men who practice with swords before. And I’ve known warriors with a lifetime of experience who could never make such a precise cut like you just made.” She shook her head. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But don’t lie and feed me some line about practice. What you did there was far more than just practice.”
Ran glanced overhead. The sun was starting its arc toward the horizon. “We should keep moving.” He pointed at the dead beast. “We’ll lose daylight sooner than we think, and I don’t want to imagine the woods filled with those things.”
“That’s all we’d need,” said Jysal. “Is it likely there’ll be others in the forest?”
“Probably,” said Ran with a sigh. He was concentrating on his breathing, willing his stomach to combat the effects of the adrenaline as well. “Come on.”
He led them farther down the game trail, past the point where Vargul had disappeared. This was now new territory. He stopped every few feet to check his direction of travel, but the game trail seemed to be the only available route to take. Unlike other forests he’d been in, this one only had the one game trail and not a whole bunch crisscrossing each other. Ran wondered if that meant there were fewer animals that lived here. Perhaps Kan-Gul had scared them all off.
Or perhaps there was a more evil reason for the game trail’s existence. If someone got lost in these woods, they’d be tempted to do exactly what Ran and Jysal were doing now: stick to the only likely path through the forest in the hopes of finding civilization.
And that would make them far easier to ambush.
We’re being led exactly where he wants us to be led, Ran thought. Well, if that’s his game, we’re not going to play it. He turned and waved Jysal up to him.
“What’s the matter?”
Ran explained the situation and then pointed through the trees. “I think we’re going to take a different direction now.”
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
Ran nodded. “Absolutely.”
Jysal’s eyes widened again. “I think they might disagree with you.”
Ran’s hand went for his sword, but Jysal stopped him. “No.”
As Ran turned, he saw what she had seen behind them and on either side of the game trail: more beasts exactly like the one Ran had just killed. And they didn’t look nearly as nonchalant as the first one had.