Clanless (30 page)

The boy gave voice to Gryphon’s own concerns. “I don’t. It just feels right.” Only a fool traveled blindly in the night; he’d lectured the point to Joshua countless times. But Joshua didn’t balk or complain. He simply nodded as if what Gryphon said made perfect sense. “You’ll find her, Gryph. I know you will.”

Gryphon welcomed Joshua’s faith, but it did little to ease his rising panic. If he was wrong, they’d have a very difficult time retracing their steps to pick up on Zo’s trail. Valuable time would be lost—time Zo might not have.

“I think I smell … ” Joshua lifted his nose to the sky and sniffed the air like a hunting dog, “fire.”

Gryphon smelled it too. The air was thick with moisture from another impending spring storm, the night peaceful with little wind, which meant the fire had to be close. “It could be Zander and the mess unit,” Gryphon warned as he and Joshua followed the smell of campfire. “We can’t be too careful right now, kid.”

They crested yet another climb and froze.

Not fifty feet away, pushed up against the rocky mountainside, orange and red flames licked the wood of a campfire. Surrounding the fire were tall pillars of rock; each stretched twice the height of a man. It was too dark to make out the black forms lying on the ground but Gryphon imagined one of those forms as Zo.

“With me,” he whispered to Joshua. Adrenaline exploded within him. This was it. She was here. She was alive. He just knew it.

Together they crept toward the sleeping camp, sticking to the shadows outside the light of the fire. Gryphon’s whole body yearned to sprint, but they kept every movement painfully slow. Nothing, not even a breeze, covered their careful steps. Only the subtle crack of the fire and the pounding rhythm of Gryphon’s heart beating in his ears, and Joshua’s heavy breathing.

Someone from the camp would be standing watch. If he could somehow take out the watchman without alerting the rest, they might have a chance of escaping. He could throw his spear, but a man could still scream with a spear in his gut.

Gryphon scanned the black trees for any sign of Zander and his mess. Every moment wasted could mean the difference between leaving with Zo and getting all three of them killed.

He touched his fist to the ground, calling halt. “Do you still have your sling?” he half mouthed, half whispered.

Joshua nodded, a thin smile spread across his face. He cupped his hand to Gryphon’s ear to block the sound. “You want me to take out the watchman without waking the others.”

This is why Joshua was so valuable to Gryphon. They’d worked and trained together long enough that the kid seemed to read his very thoughts. “You sure you can knock him out with that little thing?” Gryphon said.

Any other time Joshua would have scoffed at Gryphon’s request and pranced up to his target like a peacock. But this was Zo’s life hanging in the balance. He sat down on the muddy ground, his chest still pumping from the climb. “What if I miss?” He pressed his palms into his forehead.

“You won’t,” said Gryphon.

“But what if I
do
?”

Gryphon covered Joshua’s mouth and looked over his shoulder to make sure the watchman didn’t hear. They were still far enough away that he couldn’t make out a man’s form. The tall shadow standing near the rock—the watchman, if Gryphon wasn’t mistaken—didn’t move from his position.

Gryphon turned back to Joshua and tugged at a leather strap, freeing the boy’s sling. Gryphon weighed the child’s weapon in his hand and whispered, “I’ll do it.”

Joshua snatched the sling from Gryphon’s hands and climbed to his feet. “You’re a terrible shot.” Too loud again.

“Kid, if you’re doubting yourself—”

“I know, I know. If I doubt myself, I’ve already failed.”

“Then I’ll ask again.” Gryphon placed the sling reverently in Joshua’s smaller hands. “Can you do this?”

Joshua’s fingers closed around his weapon of choice. “Yes. I can do this.” He took a deep breath. “For Zo.”

Zo rested with her hands by the fire but couldn’t turn off her thoughts long enough to allow sleep to set in. She’d promised these barbarians she’d help free their Nameless families and packaged her life in the deal! It was pure madness. But she’d likely do it again if it ensured that she wouldn’t have to walk into Ram’s Gate as a bargaining chip for Boar.

What would she tell Tess and Joshua when they reached the Allies?
“Yes, I’m back, but don’t count on me staying for long. I’ve got to help wild men free their families from Barnabas.”

Utter insanity.

Commander Laden would be furious that she committed herself—and vicariously, his men—to this new endeavor.
Maybe
she’d have a chance of freeing the Nameless while the Allies went to battle with the Ram, but that could be five years from now or even ten, depending on the growth and preparedness of Commander Laden’s forces. Ikatou and his men wouldn’t wait that long.

What have I done?

Zo turned to rest her head in the crook of her elbow, still making sure to keep the backs of her mangled hands facing the fire. Ikatou said she couldn’t stitch the cuts; the wounds needed to heal naturally to create a proper scar. A lifelong reminder of her promise. Fearing infection, Zo relied on the heat of the fire to seal the wounds. That was, of course, assuming the bear claw used to make the cuts wasn’t contaminated. She doubted Ikatou took the time to regularly clean the evil tool.

Restless, Zo rolled onto her back to study the wounds with hands raised to the light of the fire. The flesh looked torn instead of cut. As it was, blood dried thick on clumps of ragged skin. Whenever she flexed her hand into a fist, the wound reopened and fresh blood leaked through the marred mess to add yet another layer.

Zo rolled over again, this time facing the fire. When she was only a little girl and her parents were still alive, Zo associated campfires with stories and songs, not a place to dry out gory wounds. She closed her eyes and imagined a melody from her childhood, a song Wolves sung when they pondered the state of the region. A lament with a melody so careful and clear it brought tears to her eyes. If only she could hear it aloud. She hadn’t sung since she was a child—did she even know how to sing anymore?

Zo wiped her eyes, smearing a streak of blood across her cheek, but paused when she spotted movement above one of the rock pillars.

While Joshua hiked over the giant boulders to peer down at the sleeping camp, Gryphon approached the fire head on. He crawled on hands and knees, only daring to advance when the man at the entrance of the cave wasn’t looking.

To call the watchman large was a gross understatement. With the fire at his back, his features were cast in heavy shadow. The outline of a full beard turned half his face black. He certainly didn’t fit the image Gryphon envisioned of the starving Clanless who roamed the land. This man had muscle to spare and, by the looks of him, ate like a chieftain.

He had to be a Kodiak, which meant Gryphon had more than met his match physically. He’d never fought a Kodiak outside of his mess unit’s phalanx formation. If Joshua missed his target that would all change tonight. But instead of fighting just one Kodiak with his fists, he’d be devoured by a whole group of them. He should have told Joshua to run away if his stone didn’t fell the Bear. Why hadn’t he thought to do that? It wasn’t like him not to think through a plan before putting it into motion. The thought of Zo sleeping so close by rattled every rationale he possessed.

Gryphon threw a rock twenty yards away, awakening the watchman from the trance men develop after hours spent staring at shadows. The Kodiak stepped away from his group to get a better vantage of the mountain. Above his head, he didn’t see Joshua perched atop one of the giant stone pillars.

Just a few more steps,
Gryphon urged. They couldn’t afford for Joshua to fell the watchman so close to his men and risk the chance of waking the others. The untrained watchman might have heeded Gryphon’s mental urgings, but this Kodiak-sized Clanless showed his training by only glancing in all directions. He wouldn’t be lured from his post.

What were they thinking? He and Joshua couldn’t just walk up to a camp of wild Clanless and expect to fool them with only a decoy rock and a boy’s woolen sling. As big as this man was, the chances of Joshua hurling a small rock with enough force to knock him out was as likely as Commander Laden and the Allies accepting Gryphon with open arms.

Gryphon waved to get Joshua’s attention while not showing the Kodiak his position. They would just have to try again tomorrow, when Gryphon had time to craft a better plan that didn’t rely solely on rocks and slings, and trust that Zander and the mess were miles away.

When Joshua finally looked in his direction, Gryphon gave the signal for retreat. But instead of backing down off the pillar, Joshua shook his head and set a stone in the leather pouch of his sling.

That boy!
Gryphon would kill him if they survived this.

Joshua let out a deep, silent breath, then whipped the sling over his head in one full rotation and released the stone. The entire motion happened in a blink. At the same time, Gryphon exploded toward the watchman, ready to kill the man if Joshua’s stone didn’t do its job. The rock whistled through the air and connected with the side of the Kodiak’s head. The large man toppled into Gryphon’s outstretched arms. He’d meant to break the man’s fall, but the Clanless was so large he took Gryphon to the ground along with him.

Definitely a Kodiak.

Joshua stood on the stone pillar above his prey in humble triumph. A man.

With some effort, Gryphon rolled out from under the Kodiak. He pressed his fingers to the man’s neck and found a pulse.

They didn’t have much time.

More nervous than ever, Gryphon stood with his back against the nearest stone pillar and inched toward the opening. He listened for any movement in the camp but only heard the simmering crackle of the fire. He reached the edge of the pillar and held his breath as he turned the corner.

Flickering light from the campfire reflected off the giant rocks, highlighting portions of the sleeping figures on the ground. Gryphon’s knees buckled when he spotted a smaller figure sleeping next to the fire, in the center of the group of Clanless. A blanket of shadow shrouded the figure’s face, but female hands rested in firelight.

The air flew out of Gryphon’s lungs, his hopes that she rested unharmed plummeted. Her hands—the hands that worked a miracle in healing Joshua and helped so many others—were crusted in blood.

Zo looked up, startled to see an enormous shadowed figure looming just outside the firelight. At first glance she assumed him to be Ikatou’s lookout, but this man carried himself differently than the other Kodiak. And none of them stared like this stranger. He stood as still as the pillars surrounding their little camp, but his gaze cut through the heat of the flames and his shroud of darkness.

Zo sat up, still a little fire blind from staring at the flames for so long. The knot of hair she’d tied on top of her head loosened and dark, tangled strands tumbled about her shoulders and down her back. She considered reaching over to wake Ikatou from his heavy sleep and warn him of the stranger. It would be easy. He slept close enough she could smell the ripeness of his feet.