Oracle (Book 5) (16 page)

Kendril glared icily at Tomas. “You don’t know me very well, so for your sake I’m going to pretend like you didn’t say that.”

“Maybe it’s time you told me what’s really going on here,” Tomas said.

“And maybe it’s time you stopped digging into my private life and focused on what we need to do.” Kendril snatched the musket out of Marley’s hand and snapped the lock forward a bit. “Keep it half-cocked when you’re not using it, Marls, or you’ll blow your foot off.”

“Or shoot one of us in the back,” Tomas mumbled. He glanced back towards the long line of the ocean. “All right, you said you might have some idea where Bronwyn might be. Any suggestions?”

Kendril ran his eyes over the rain-spattered ground with a frown. “I can’t track them.”

Tomas crossed his arms. “So you
don’t
know where they are.”

“No,” Kendril admitted. “But I have an idea.” He stuck the toe of his boot in a patch of soft dirt and made a great looping horseshoe shape. “This is the peninsula that Redemption is on. The sea’s on three sides.” He jammed the side of his foot into the open side of the horseshoe and dragged it down to form a deep line. “That’s the Wall. It cuts off the peninsula we’re on from the rest of Jothland. Past that is wild forest and Jombards.”

“And the Forbidden City,” said Marley in a half-whisper. He made the sign against evil with shaking fingers.

Kendril glanced up at Marley. “And the Forbidden City.” He tapped the top part of the horseshoe. “Here’s Dancing Harbor. If there are Jombards here, there’s only two ways they could have come.”

Tomas studied Kendril’s crude map as if it was an in-depth parchment. “Either over the Wall, or across the sea.”

“Nothing gets over the Wall,” said Kendril darkly. “Not without a few thousand screaming berserkers to smash a hole in it first. And the Jombards have never been great sailors.”

Tomas looked up “I doubt Redemption would have lasted very long if they were.”

Kendril tapped the side of his head. “Now you’re getting it. But just because the Jombards aren’t a seafaring nation doesn’t mean that they don’t have a boat or two.”

Tomas nodded. “So if there
are
Jombards here near Redemption, that means that they had to come by sea.” He looked up, catching sight of the gray ocean. “And it would be somewhere close to here, I’d reckon. Along the shore.”

Kendril glanced back towards the standing stones, almost expecting to see the phantom girl again. But the area was empty save for the whistling wind and the tall, motionless stones. “There aren’t many places they could hide,” he said, turning his head back to Tomas again. “And there’s a good chance that they’re not here anymore. But if they are, I think I might have a good idea where they might be.”

“All right, then. Where?”

“There’s a series of sea caves in the cliffside,” Kendril said. He stuck the toe of his boot onto the top edge of the horseshoe. “Right about here. The eastern end of Dancing Harbor. Some of the caves are pretty big, and at high tide many of them are completely submerged. They used to be stopping points for smugglers and pirates.” He lifted his head up and pointed off towards where the trees covered the view of the ocean. “Over that way, probably less than an hour’s walk away.”

Tomas scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It’s a good start, anyway.”

Kendril lifted the hood of his cloak. “We have no way of knowing how many Jombards there are, or whether Bronwyn is with them or not. Things could get hairy.”

Tomas gave a crooked grin. “Are you trying to scare me off, Kendril?”

The Ghostwalker shrugged. “Just a fair warning.”

“I could stay here,” Marley ventured hopefully. “With Simon.”

The mule brayed his approval of the idea.

Kendril gave the old sailor a cutting side-glance. “Don’t worry, Marls, I won’t pull you into any fighting unless I have to. I have no doubt you’d be next to useless if things went south on us.”

“Thank you, Mr. Kendril,” Marley said.

“We don’t have a boat,” Kendril said. “We’d best wait for low tide.”

Tomas snorted. “Well, unfortunately I forgot my tide chart.”

“Low tide?” Marley slung his musket back over his shoulder by the strap. “I’d say about ten o’clock tonight. Maybe ten-thirty, give or take.”

Kendril and Tomas both looked over at the crusty man.

A smile appeared on Marley’s cracked face. “Begging your pardon, Mr. Kendril, but the two of you are a bunch of landlubbers for sure. You’re too easy forgetting that old Marley spent fair his whole life on the sea, now ain’t you?”

The moon was barely a sliver in the black sky above, like a glinting fingernail among the stars.

The beach was dark, lit only by the weak moonlight and the stars not blocked by clouds. The gentle roar of the ocean drowned out almost any other sounds, even though Kendril strained to hear what he could not see.

Tomas had been gone for a long time. Too long. He was supposed to go on a simple reconnaissance mission down the beach to check out the nearest caves, then scoot back to the rocks Kendril was hiding in.

Kendril didn’t have a pocket watch, and wouldn’t have been able to see it even if he had, but he was sure it had been at least thirty minutes since he had last seen Tomas.

He grunted, and tried to shift his position among the rocks. Sharp edges dug into his side and back, and the wet of slimy seaweed and saltwater soaked into his clothes. His knee still ached dully from where he had twisted it back in New Marlin. That seemed a lifetime ago now.

Kendril peered through the darkness, trying to make out the black shapes of the caves in the cliffside up ahead. He knew they were there, but he could barely see anything in the weak starlight. There was no sign of life anyway. Not a campfire or the slightest sound that could be heard over the murmuring of the ocean.

With a muttered curse, Kendril tried to change position again. His legs were throbbing from sitting for too long, and his bum was no doubt bruised black and blue from the oddly shaped rocks underneath him.

Waiting
. He hated it. Always had. Better to be staring down a demon of the Void.

Kendril turned his head back towards the line of the ocean. He could just barely make out the whitecaps of the waves as they crashed onto the beach.

He half-expected to see
her
again, standing alone on the beach. Half of him wanted to, the other half was terrified that he would. Her memory haunted this place.

But the beach was empty. At least as far as Kendril could see in the inky darkness. No ghosts, at any rate.

The sooner he was out of Jothland, the better. It was hard to come back, harder than Kendril had expected. The strength of the memories here…they had a power all their own.

Kendril shivered in the icy wind. He glanced back up the lonely stretch of beach.

Marley and Simon were somewhere back up there, off the beach and out of sight among the tall trees.

Kendril was starting to think that Marley was more of a burden than a help. He should have left him behind in New Marlin, and spared himself the trouble of having the old salt following him around.

Still, it was nice to have a manservant again, even an incompetent one.

And to be honest, Kendril rather liked having the company, even if Marley did nothing much but complain constantly. After travelling with Maklavir, Joseph, and Kara for so long, Kendril had to admit that he had gotten used to jokes and stories around the campfire, and having someone else around him. Well, someone besides Simon, anyways.

Kara.

Kendril licked his lips, feeling the cold sting of sea spray on his face.

He had shot her, right in front of Joseph and Maklavir. There was no other choice, of course. The demon Indigoru had possessed her, and if Kendril hadn’t acted immediately the Seteru would only have grown more powerful. As it was she had almost killed Joseph.

And yet, it weighed heavily on him. He had promised Joseph he would keep Kara safe. Instead he had almost killed her.

Killed her. Just like—

No.

Kendril shook his head furiously. Some things didn’t bear thinking about. Not here of all places. The ghosts were too near.

Kendril turned his head back to look down the beach once more. Still no sign of Tomas. As much as Kendril disliked his fellow Ghostwalker, he had to admit that the man moved like a living shadow.

“You’re lucky I’m not a Jombard,” came a soft voice right behind Kendril’s ear. “You’d already be dead.”

Kendril craned his head around, trying not to show the surprise he felt. “Tomas. Took you long enough.”

The Ghostwalker slid into the tangle of rocks beside Kendril. He pushed his hood back away from his matted hair. He was soaking wet, and reeked strongly of brine.

Kendril pushed to the side to make room for the other man. “Find anything?”

“Yeah.” Tomas pointed casually with his dagger, across the beach towards the dark cliffs ahead. “The big cave on the lower left. It goes back in for quite some ways. There’s a group in there. Staying quiet and out of sight for the most part.”

Kendril felt the thrill of impending battle rise up inside of him. “Jombards?”

Tomas lowered the dagger, but kept it in his hand. The blade had been darkened with something that prevented it from shining in the pale starlight. “I think so. They were speaking in a strange tongue. There are two sentries hiding in the rocks by the cliff’s edge. They weren’t dressed like anyone from Redemption. Trousers, war paint. One was wearing a wolf skin.”

Kendril spat onto the rocks. “A Berserker. Just our luck. Hopefully there’s only the one.” He turned to face Tomas in the darkness, a new level of respect in his voice. “You got past the two sentries?”

Tomas gave a weary nod. “Made it a little ways into the cave, but then I had to turn back. There’s a heap of them inside. I would guess at least a dozen.”

“Bronwyn?”

“There was a woman’s voice towards the back.” Tomas clucked his tongue. “But I didn’t see her.”

Kendril leaned back against a sharp rock, thinking. “Good enough. We’ll have to do this quick and quiet, at least as long as we can. Bronwyn’s the priority. We get in, grab her, and get out.”

Tomas was quiet for a moment. “You and me? Against a dozen Jombards?”

Kendril smiled. “Yeah, I feel kind of sorry for them too. Not really fair.”

Tomas gave a somber shake of his head. “You got a real death wish, don’t you Kendril?”

Kendril pulled out one of his pistols and checked the flint by touch in the darkness. “I told you already, Eru won’t let me die.”

“Is that what we’re counting on?” Tomas’ voice was thick with sarcasm. “Your invulnerability?”

“That, and the element of surprise.” Kendril gave a satisfied grunt and returned the weapon to its holster.

“I’d feel better with some solid reinforcements behind our back,” Tomas said carefully. “If we’re going to storm the place it would be good to have some friends behind us.”

Kendril pulled out his second pistol and checked it as well. “Like who? You see anyone in town who would be willing to help out two Ghostwalkers clear out a cave of Jombards?”

“The town militia, surely.”

Kendril shook his head. He rubbed some of the salt spray off his cheek. “Redemption’s almost a day’s march away. By the time we get here and get back, Bronwyn might well be gone.”

“So your solution is to charge in right now against overwhelming odds?” Tomas sighed. “I’m beginning to see why you and Olan hate each other so much.”

Kendril smirked. “Olan’s an idiot. Trust me, I know what I’m doing here. This will be easy.”

“All right.” Tomas got up, his face hidden in the darkness of the night. “But like you said, we do this quick and quiet. My way, not yours. No pistols blazing. Quick knife work will be best. You got one?”

Kendril felt instinctively for the short swords buckled at his belt. “My swords. They will probably—”

“No.” Tomas raised his hood, and his face vanished completely into blackness. “You’ll need a knife, something short.” He reached into the folds of his cloak, and pulled out a long dagger with a dulled finish. “You know how to kill a man from behind?”

Kendril took the dagger. The weight of the weapon felt ridiculously light in his hand. “I can kill a man face to face or with his back to me. Either way is fine by me.”

Tomas gave a heavy sigh. “No. This isn’t about killing. This is about stealth. Staying quiet. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

Kendril felt his face burn. He gripped the handle of the dagger. “Anything you can do, I can do too.”

“We’ll see.” Tomas slipped down onto the soft sand of the beach. “Stay behind me, walk where I walk, and don’t make any noise.”

Kendril muttered something unkind under his breath, then jumped down next to Tomas.

“Stay low,” Tomas said, his voice almost inaudible over the crashing surf. “And for Eru’s sake don’t shoot off one of those pistols.”

“Yes, mother,” Kendril snipped.

They headed off together across the dark beach, moving like two shadows in the dark.

The beach was a mixture of sand, rocks, and scattered shells. Try as he might, Kendril couldn’t seem to take a step without hearing a loud
crunch
underneath his boot that made him wince. His own breath thundered in his ears, louder than the ocean. He twisted the dagger handle in his hand, wishing for the more solid grip of one of his swords. Several times he stepped with a loud splash into a tide pool or puddle.

Tomas turned once, and Kendril could see his eyes glaring at him even underneath the shadow of his hood.

The light was poor on the beach, and Kendril felt as if he was stepping blindly. There was little way of knowing what was underneath him. The terrain in front of him seemed to rise up like ghostly apparitions. He found himself wishing for the full moon that had lit the harbor back in New Marlin, instead of this near pitch blackness.

Tomas stopped at a tumble of fallen driftwood, and signed something back to Kendril.

Kendril nodded as if he understood, even though he had no idea what Tomas was trying to say.